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KLONDIKE 



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The Land of Gold 



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BY 



Charles Frederick Stansbury 



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F. TENNYSON NEELY, Publisher 
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KLONDIKE 

THE LAND OF GOLD 



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CONTAINING ALL AVAILABLE PRACTICAL 
INFORMATION OF EVERY DESCRIPTION 
CONCERNING THE NEW GOLD FIELDS 

WHAT THEY ARE AND HOW TO REACH THEM — A SHORT 

HISTORY OF ALASKA — A SYNOPSIS OF THE PERSONAL 

TESTIMONY OF MINERS WHO HAVE BEEN ON THE 

GROUND— A DIGEST OF THE MINING LAWS OF 

THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA— THE 

LATEST AUTHENTIC MAPS, WITH A 

REVIEW OF THE FAMOUS GOLD 

RUSHES OF THE WORLD 

BY / 

CHARLES FREDERICK STANSBURY 

PUBLISHED BY 

R TENNYSON NEELY 

n4 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 

1897 



Copyright, 1897, by 
Charles Frederick Stansburt. 



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An earnest desire to ootain practical infor- 
mation concerning the gold fields in the Klon- 
dike in a non-hysterical and concrete form, 
prompted the author of this work to seek such 
knowledge. Not being able to find it, he com- 
piled this volume from the best sources of in- 
formation for the benefit of himself and the 
public. 



^•^ 



INDEX* 



PAGE. 

Klondike Gold Fields 5 

Human Documents ^2 

A Practical Chapter 71 

The Law of Mining 120 

A Short History of Alaska 154 

Famous Gold Rushes 173 

Poem 183 

Gold and its Victims 184 



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THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

Gold! gold I gold I gold I 

Bright and yellow, hard and cold, 

Molten, graven, hammered and rolled ; 

Heavy to get and light to hold ; 

Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold. 

Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled ; 

Spurned by the young, but hugged by the old 

To the very verge of the churchyard mould ; 

Price of many a crime untold ; 

Gold I goldl goldl gold! 

— Thomas Hood. 

The Klondike gold fields of Alaska are so 
called because situated on and about the Klon- 
dike Eiver, a tributary of the Yukon Elver, 
into which it flows at a point just above the 
settlement of Forty Mile. It is within the 
territory of British Columbia, is under Can- 
adian rule, and is governed by Canadian law. 

Mr. Harold B. Goodrich, of the United 
States Geological Survey, is authority for the 
statement that the name Klondike is a miner's 
corruption of the Indian '' Throndink," or 



^ TSZ KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

Thron Diuck, according to Canadian spelling, 
which means '' water full of fish." The little 
river bearing the name has, he says, from time 
immemorial been a favorite fishing ground 
for the gens des hois, who meet at its mouth 
and wait for the salmon to ascend every June. 
The old name, Reindeer River (or Deer River), 
was given by Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka 
in 1883, and is on the United States Coast Sur- 
rey Charts that have appeared since then. 

The discoverer of the rich placer diggings of 
the Klondike is known to be George W. Cormack, 
a working miner, who was generally known as 
Siwash George, and the first claim was staked 
on Bonanza Creek, a small tributary of the 
EHondike River. The staking of this claim 
occurred on August IT, 1896, and marks the 
beginning of a wonderful era for Alaska. 
There are a large number of such creeks as 
Bonanza, each said to be equally rich in gold 
deposits. Among them are the El Dorado, 
Victoria, Adams, McCormack, Reddy Bullion, 
Nugget Gulch, Bear, Baker and Chee-Chaw- 
Ka. This region, which in July, 1896, was, 
comparatively speaking, uninhabited, is now 
dotted with hundred* of miners' tents, as white 



THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 7 

as the snow which will begin to fly in Sep- 
tember. 

In the summer of 1896 a party, consisting 
of Messrs. Spurr, Schrader and Goodrich, was 
sent by the United States Geological Survey 
to investigate the American gold fields of 
Alaska. To quote Mr. Goodrich, they 
' ' stopped a few hours at the little Indian 
village, where Dawson City is now located, 
and then passed on into American territory. 
This was on the 5th of July, and at that time 
all was quiet along the Klondike. Later on, 
however, just as we were going out of the 
country, and were within 500 miles of the 
mouth of the Yukon, we learned from miners 
who had been there that there was a great 
stampede to the new discoveries. Even then 
no hint was given of its great richness, al- 
though good prospects had been found, and aa 
high as $1 to the pan was reported." 

It thus appears that on July 5, 1896, all was 
quiet along the Klondike, or as Mr. Goodrich 
prefers to spell it, the Clondike. 

There is a general concensus of opinion 
among returned miners, that the best way to 
reach the new gold fields ip- by way of Juneau. 



8 THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

The distance from that point is 650 miles, and 
thirty days should be allowed to traverse it 
under ordinary conditions. 



Juneau. 

Juneau is the key to the new Klondike 
region and the head waters of the Yukon. 
The water route, by way of St. Michael, is of 
secondary consideration. Juneau is a centre of 
importance. Some enormous mining plants 
are in operation among the quartz veins with- 
in sixty miles of the town. The coast mines 
about Seward City, represent the investment of 
vast capital by the Eothschilds and their 
friends. D. 0. Mills, New York, the Noe wells, 
of Boston, the Berners' Bay Mining and Mill- 
ing Company, directed by Colonel John F. 
Plummer, New York, are among those inter- 
ested in this district. The product of the 
Juneau mines for 1896 was $2,500,000. At 
present the rush is to the placers, but undoubt- 
edly the stream will later set back toward the 
quartz fissures in the mountain altitudes nearer 
the sea. The Yukon is navigable in sum- 
mer for about 1200 miles, and all of its in- 



THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. f 

numerable tributaries are said to carr}'- flour 
gold, which increases in coarseness in the 
journey towards the mouth of the stream. 
But a small fraction of this country has been 
prospected, and that not thoroughly. The 
mineral resources of Alaska may be said to 
have been, as yet, barely scratched. 

For the land trip by way of Juneau and the 
Chilkoot pass, all outfitting should be done at 
Seattle, where ample supplies and implements 
for miners are kept in stock. In planning a 
trip to the Klondike, it is well to regard Seattle 
as a base of supplies. Only those persons who 
intend to engage in mining should make the 
journey to the gold fields, as there are but two 
industries in Alaska — mining and fishing. 

The trail from Juneau to Klondike leads 
across a number of lakes and along the beds of 
many streams. This route is by way of the 
now famous Chilkoot Pass, the crossing of 
which is both arduous and dangerous for ten 
months of the year. Snow storms at the Pass, 
the violence of which renders it so dangerous, 
occur as late as May and June and as early as 
September. Chilkoot Pass reaches an eleva- 
tion of 4,100 feet, and is one of two openingpB 



10 THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

in the mountain range, the peaks of which rise 
to a height of 10,000 feet. The snowstorms 
which affict the pass are sudden, furious and 
treacherous, and constitute the greatest danger 
in passing from Juneau to the Klondike. 

In 1883, Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, of 
the United States Army, an able, indefatigable 
officer, noted for the accuracy of his reports, 
made the passage to Lake Lindeman, in the 
Klondike, through the Chilkoot Pass, to which 
he gave the name of Perrier Pass. Though 
some mechanical facilities have been added to 
lessen the difficulties of surmounting it since 
his day, yet his experience ought to prove of 
great value to those who desire an accurate 
knowledge of the frowning barrier that lies 
between the Pacific Ocean and the New El 
Dorado. Therefore a brief summary of his 
report to the Secretary of War is here given. 
He says : '' There are some three or four passes 
through the coast range of Alaskan moun- 
tains, leading from the inland passages of the 
Pacific Ocean to the sources of the Yukon 
Eiver * * * The Lynn Channel, at its 
head, divides into two deep inlets — the Chilkat 
and the Chilkoot, each receiving rivers at their 



THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 11 

heads, and from these valleys lead out trails 
that reach different sources of the Yukon 
Kiver (the Klondike being one), and that have 
been known to have been tra^veled by the Chil- 
kat and Chilkoot Indians, respectively, for many 
years in the past. -^^ * * The Chilkoot 
Trail leads up the inlet to a branch once called 
the Day ay (Dyea), and through it to the 
mouth of a river of the same name, thence to 
its head and across the mountains to one of the 
sources of the Yukon, its disadvantages being 
the three or four canons, rapids or cascades 
that obstruct that part of the river to which 
its leads. " 

In this connection it must be recalled that 
Lieutenant Schwatka crossed the Pass fourteen 
years ago, which makes the following passage 
from his report singularly prophetic: " Mining 
parties, in small numbers, had also crossed this 
trail in order to prospect the head waters of the 
Yukon for valuable minerals, but as far as any 
results were obtained, outside of their imposed 
labors, nothing had been gained by their at- 
tempts ; still their adventurous efforts should 
receive the highest commendation, for had 
they been, or should they be, successful in 



12 THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

developing rich mineral in this section of the 
country (which must be limited in its industries 
to minerals and fisheries) they would do a prac- 
tical good only to be measured by the value of 
their discoveries." 

''The Indian Packers," continues Schwatka, 
" over these mountain passes usually carry 100 
pounds, although one that I had walked along 
readily with 127, and a miner informed me 
that his party employed one that carried IGO. 
The cost of carriage of a pack (100 pounds) 
over the Chilkoot trail for m^iners has been 
from $9 to $12, and the Indians were not in- 
clined to see me over at any reduced rates. 
* * * After I had crossed the trail I in no 
way blamed the Indians for their stubborness 
in maintaining what seemed at first sight to be 
exorbitant, and only wondered that they 
would do this extremely fatiguing labor so 
reasonably. " 

Eegarding Dayay (Dyea), Lieut. Schwatka 
says: 

' ' The Dayay Inlet and Valley is of the same 
general character as the inland passages of the 
Archipelago, a river-like inlet between high 
hills covered with spruce and pine nearly to 



THE KLOXDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 13 

the top, the latter predominates in the lower 
levels, the former in the higher and capped 
with barren granite mountains, covered on the 
top and in the gulches with snow and glaciers, 
which furnish water for innumerable cascades 
and waterfalls. These glaciers on the moun- 
tain tops become better marked as the river 
is ascended. One on the v/est side of the 
Dayay may be said to commence opposite the 
mouth of that stream, if not before, and con- 
tinue along it some ten or twelve miles until 
the outline could no longer be followed in the 
fog and mist that nearly always cling to their 
faces, especially during the warm summer 
months, when the atmosphere charged with 
moisture from the warm waters of the near 
Pacific is driven against them by the sea 
breezes." 

With reference to game in this section 
Schwatka says: 

' ' The Oregon blue grouse could be heard 
hooting in the woods, and in the quiet even- 
ings a perfect chorus of them filled the air. 
Trout had been caught in the fish wires of the 
' Stick ' Indians and offered us for sale. The 
tracks of black bear, fresh and old, were very 



14 THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

numerous, and one was seen but not secured. 
Mountain goats and deer can also be added to 
the game list." 

It was on July 10th that Schwa tka started 
to cross the mountains at Chilkoot Pass. He 
says: ^'The party started at 7.30 A. M., the 
trail leaving the narrow valley, oftentimes not 
wider than the river bed itself, and leading up 
over the mountain spurs of the eastern side of 
the stream. The difiBculties of the inland walk- 
ing has already been described, and the pres- 
ent was no improvement on it in any particu- 
lar. Occasionally the path would debouch into 
the river-bed wherever it was wide enough to 
give a mile or two of walking and wading and 
then would strike over the mountain sides 
again. At places on the latter it would be 
very easy to lose the trails where they followed 
for long distances over great winrows and ava- 
lanches of broken boulders and shattered stones 
varying in size from a person's head to the size 
of a small house." 

The actual distance across the Chilkoot Pass 
is eleven miles, but it is fully equal to thirty 
miles over an ordinary road. The crest of the 
Pass is 4,100 feet above the sea level. The 



THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 15 

Indian packers show marvellous agility in 
climbing the steep declivities where a false step 
would hurl them hundreds of feet below. In 
many cases footholds have to be cut in the 
glacial snow, and it is often necessary for an 
advance party to prepare a trail for the pack- 
ers. Climbing the Pass is of the most severe 
Alpine character, even when unencumbered, 
and it seems almost marvelous that men should 
be enabled to make the ascent laden with 100 
to 160 pounds of freight. From the highest 
notch in the pass the mountains can still be seen 
towering thousands of feet above on either side. 
Beyond the apex of the pass down to Lake 
Lindeman and the Klondike the trail is more 
easily followed, although the traveling is very 
irksome. 

The Indian tribe that inhabits the region of 
the Klondike is the Tahk-Heesh, known locally 
as the ''Sticks." Numerically the tribe is a 
small one and they seem to conform to the un- 
prolific and dreary aspect of the country which 
they inhabit. They are very wretched looking 
objects, garbed in a combination of civilized and 
native clothes. They are of average size, and 
all of them have the appearance of being half 



16 THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

starved, notwithstanding which they are equal 
to the better looking Chilkat Indians in the 
matter of carrying large packs. They subsist 
almost entirely upon salmon, which they dry 
in the sun without salt for winter consump- 
tion. 

A word must be said about the mosquitoes 
that for three months of the year infest the 
Klondike region. In certain places and at cer- 
tain times they constitute a menace to the life 
and sanity of man, while even such tough ani- 
mals as the black bear frequently succumb to 
them. Lieutenant Schwatka states that they 
may be said to have been the worst discomfort 
his party was called on to endure. They often, 
he says, ''made many investigations, usually 
carried on in explorations, impossible of execu- 
tion, and will be the great bane of this coun- 
try, should the mineral discoveries or fisheries 
ever attempt to colonize it. I have never seen 
their equal for steady and constant irritation 
in any part of the United States, the swamps 
of New Jersey and the sand hills of Nebraska 
not excepted. It was only when the wind was 
blowing, and well out on a lake or wide por- 
tion of the river that their abominable torment 



THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 17 

ceased." The small black gnat is at times 
almost equal to the Alaska mosquito as an 
insanity breeder. 

The testimony regarding Alaska's greatest 
pest is endorsed by all of the miners and tour- 
ists who have sojourned in that country. 

The proximity of the Klondike region to the 
arctic circle renders it sufficiently a ''land of 
the midnight sun " during the summer months 
for a person to read the type of an ordinary 
newspaper at midnight without resorting to 
artificial light. At such times but one star, 
Venus, is visible in the cloudless sky. The 
long winter months, on the contrary, are en- 
shrouded in perpetual twilight. 

Dr. Krause, a German savant, explored and 
mapped the Klondike region very accurately, 
and his maps and data, probably the most com- 
prehensive extant, appear in the proceedings of 
the Bremen Geographical Society for 1882. 
Miners and prospectors cannot be warned too 
often against placing reliance on maps con- 
cocted by guesswork by parlor authors. Many 
a poor fellow has been lured to his death by 
following these geographical wills o' the wisp. 

Generally speaking, the climate of th^ 



18 THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

Klondike district is healthful and the con- 
ditions of winter life there can be made even 
enjoyable with warm clothing, good food, 
cleanliness and exercise. These simple aids to 
healthfulness are unfortunately at present 
mostly conspicuous by their absence. 

The Klondike gold fields, being situated in 
the gullies are, of course, placer diggings, al- 
though the surrounding mountains are very 
rich in quartz veins, the working of which will 
constitute the mining of the future. The entire 
basin of the Yukon, covering an enormous 
area of the interior of Alaska and the north- 
west territory is a vast treasure-bed, contain- 
ing besides gold, marble, coal, copper and other 
metals. 

The mining season at the new placer diggings 
would under ordinaiy conditions last but for 
about three months of the year, but climatic 
necessities have evolved the system known as 
^^ burning" — sinking shafts and running tun- 
nels by means of fire. In this manner the pay 
dirt is extracted and stored by the banks of 
streams. When the river ice becomes water 
in the spring the sluice box comes into requisi- 



THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 19 

tion, and wasliing out the gold is the order of 
the day for three months. 

The reconnaissance made in 1896 by Mr. 
J. Edward Spurr and two assistants of the 
U. S. Geological Survey, which has already 
been referred to, has resulted in a report which 
is of great interest in that it refers in detail to 
that portion of the Alaskan gold fields im- 
mediately contiguous to the Klondike district, 
and which lie within the United States. 

Concerning the Yukon Gold Belt, the report 
says: 

Yukon Gold Belt. 

Eunning in a direction a little west of north- 
west through the territory examined is a broad, 
continuous belt of highly altered rocks, which 
crosses the area actually examined approxim- 
ately as shown on the map. To the east this 
belt is known to be continuous for 100 miles or 
more in British territory. The rocks constitut- 
ing this belt are mostly crystalline schists 
associated Vvdth marbles and sheared quartzites, 
indicating a sedimentary origin for a large 
part of the series. In the upper part a few 
plant remains were found, which suggest that 
this portion is probably of Devonian age. These 
altered sedimentary rocks have been shattered 



20 THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

by volcanic action, and they are pierced by 
many dikes of eruptive rock. Besides the minor 
volcanic disturbances, there have been others 
on a large scale, which have resulted in the 
formation of continuous ridges or mountain 
ranges. In this process of mountain building 
the sedimentary rocks have been subjected to 
such pressure and to such alteration from 
attendant forces that they have been squeezed 
into the condition of schist, and often partly 
or wholly crystallized, so that their original 
character has in some cases entirely disap- 
peared. In summarizing, it may be said that 
the rocks of the gold belt of Alaska consist 
largely of sedimentary beds older than the 
Carboniferous period ; that these beds have 
undergone extensive alteration, and have been 
elevated into mountain ranges and cut through 
by a variety of igneous rocks. 

Throughout these altered rocks there are 
found veins of quartz often carrying pyrite 
and gold. It appears that these quartz veins 
were formed during the disturbance attending 
the uplift and alteration of the beds. Many 
of the veins have been cut, sheared, and torn 
into fragments by the force that has trans- 
formed the sedimentary rocks into crystalline 
schist; but there are others, containing gold, 
silver, and copper, that have not been very 
much disturbed or broken. These more con- 
tinuous ore-bearing zones have not the charac- 



THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 21 

fer of ordinary quartz veins, although they 
contain much silica. Instead of the usual white 
quartz veins, the ore occurs in a sheared and 
altered zone of rock and gradually runs out 
on both sides. So far as yet known, these con- 
tinuous zones of ore are of relatively low grade. 
Concerning the veins of white quartz first men- 
tioned, it is certain that most of them which 
contain gold carry it only m small quantity, 
and yet some few are known to be very rich in 
places, and it is extremely probable that there 
are many in which the whole of the ore is of 
comparatively high grade. 

No quartz or vein mining of any kind has 
yet been attempted in the Yukon district, 
mainly on account of the difficulty with which 
supplies, machinery, and labor can be obtained; 
yet it is certain that there is a vast quantity 
of gold in these rocks, much of which could be 
profitably extracted under favorable conditions. 
The general character of the rocks and of the 
ore deposits is extremely like that of the gold- 
bearing formations along the southern coast of 
Alaska, in which the Treadwell and other mines 
are situated, and it is probable that the rich- 
ness of the Yukon rocks is approximately equal 
to that of the coast belt. It may be added that 
the resources of the coast belt have been only 
partially explored. 

Besides the gold found in the rocks of the 
Yukon district there is reason to expect paying 



22 THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

quantities of other minerals. Deposits of silver- 
bearing lead have been found in a number of 
localities, and copper is also a constituent of 
many of the ores. 

Gold Placers. 

Since the formation of the veins and other 
deposits of the rocks of the gold belt an enor- 
mous length of time has elapsed. During that 
time the forces of erosion have stripped off the 
overlying rocks and exposed the metalliferous 
veins at the surface for long periods, and the 
rocks of the gold belt, with the veins which 
they include, have crumbled and been carried 
away by the streams, to be deposited in widely 
different places as gravels, or sands, or muds. 
As gold is the heaviest of all materials found 
in rock, it is concentrated in detritus which has 
been worked over by stream action; and the 
richness of the placers depends upon the avail- 
able gold supply, the amount of available 
detritus, and the character of the streams 
which carry this detritus away. In Alaska the 
streams have been carrying away the gold 
from the metalliferous belt for a very long 
period, so that particles of the precious metal 
are found in nearly all parts of the Territory. 
It is only in the immediate vicinity of the gold- 
bearing belt, however, that the particles of 
gold are large and plentiful enough to repay 



THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 28 

working, under present conditions. Where a 
stream heads in the gold belt, the richest 
diggings are likely to be near its extreme upper 
part. 

In this upper part the current is so swift that 
the lighter material and the finer gold are car- 
ried away, leaving in many places a rich de- 
posit of coarse gold overlain by coarse gravel, 
the pebbles being so large as to hinder rapid 
transportation by water. It is under such 
conditions that the diggings which are now 
being worked are found, with some unimport- 
ant exceptions. The rich gulches of the Forty 
Mile district, and of the Birch Creek district, 
as well as other fields of less importance, all 
head in the gold-bearing formation. 

A short distance below the heads of these 
gulches the stream valley broadens and the 
gravels contain finer gold more widely dis- 
tributed. Along certain parts of the stream 
this finer gold is concentrated by favorable 
currents, and is often profitably washed, this 
kind of deposit coming under the head of ' ' bar 
diggings." The gold in these more extensive 
gravels is often present in sufficient quantity 
to encourage the hope of successful extraction 
at some future time, when the work can be 
done more cheaply and with suitable machinery. 
The extent of these gravels, which are of pos- 
sible value, is very great. As the field of ob- 
servation is extended farther and farther from 



24 THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

the gold-bearing belt, the gold occurs in finer 
and finer condition, until it is found only in 
extremely small flakes, so light that they can 
be carried long distances by the current. 

It may be stated, therefore, as a general 
rule, that the profitable gravels are found in 
the vicinity of the gold-bearing rock. 

The gold-bearing belt forms a range of low 
mountains, and on the flanks of these moim- 
tains, to the northeast and to the southwest, 
lie various younger rocks which range in age 
from Carboniferous to very recent Tertiary, 
and are made up mostly of conglomerates, 
sandstones and shales, with some volcanic 
material. These rocks were formed subse- 
quent to the ore deposition, and therefore do 
not contain metalliferous veins. They have 
been partly derived, however, from detritus 
worn from the gold-bearing belt during the 
long period that it has been exposed to erosion, 
and some of them contain gold derived from 
the more ancient rocks and concentrated in 
the same way as is the gold in the present 
river gravels. In one or two places it is cer- 
tain that these conglomerates are really fossil 
placers, and this source of supply may event- 
ually turn out to be very important. 

CoaI» 

In the younger rocks which overlie the gold- 



THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. ^5 

bearing series there are beds of black, hard, 
glossy, very pure lignitic coal. An area of 
these coal-bearing strata lies very close to the 
gold-bearing district, in the northern part of 
the region examined, and as the beds of coal 
are often of considerable thickness and the 
coal in some of them leaves very little ash and 
contains volatile constituents in considerable 
amount, it is probable that the coal deposits 
will become an important factor in the develop- 
ment of the country. 

Conditions of Mining* 

There were probably 2,000 miners in the 
Yukon district during the past season, the 
larger number of whom were actually engaged 
in washing gold. Probably 1,500 of them 
were working in American territory, although 
the migration from one district to another is 
so rapid that one year the larger part of the 
population may be in American territory and 
the next year in British. As a rule, however, 
the miners prefer the American side, on ac- 
count of the difference in mining laws. These 
miners, with few exceptions, were engaged in 
gulch digging. The high price of provisions 
and other necessaries raises the price of ordi- 
nary labor in the mines to $10 per day, and 
therefore no mine which pays less than this to 
each man working can be even temporarily 



26 THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

handled. Yet, in spite of these difficulties, 
there was probably taken out of the Yukon 
district the past season, mostly from American 
territory, approximately 11,000,000 worth of 
gold. 

An overland route should be surveyed and 
constructed to the interior of Alaska. All the 
best routes which can be suggested pass 
through British territory, and the co-operation 
of the two Governments would be mutually 
beneficial, since the gold belt lies partly in 
American and partly in British possessions. 
At the present time Mr. Spurr thinks that the 
best route lies from Juneau, by way of the 
Chilkat Pass, overland to the Yukon, at the 
junction with the Pelly. This trail has al- 
ready been gone over with pack horses by a 
pioneer named Dalton, who reports a good 
grazing country and no great obstacles to 
overcome. The Chilkat Pass is considerably 
lower than the Chilkoot, over which the Geo- 
logical Survey party of 1896 passed. If a 
wagon road, or even a good horse trail, could 
be built as indicated, the cost of provisions and 
other supplies would be greatly reduced, many 
gravels now useless could be profitably worked, 
and employment would be afforded for many 
men. With the greater development of placer 
diggings would come the development of 
mines in the bed rock. 

Besides the coal which has been alluded to, 



THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 27 

there is abundant timber throughout the whole 
of the interior of Alaska, along the valleys of 
the Yukon. For four or five months in the 
summer the climate is hardly to be dis- 
tinguished from that of the northern United 
States — Minnesota or Montana, for example ; 
and although the winters are very severe, the 
snowfall is not heavy. Work could be carried 
on underground throughout the whole of the 
year quite as well as in the higher mountains 
of Colorado. 

Future Development* 

As shown on the map, the area hastily ex- 
amined during the past season is but a portion 
of the great interior of Alaska. That gold 
occurs over a large extent of country has been 
determined, but the richness of the various 
veins and lodes remains to be ascertained by 
actual mining operations. Gold is known to 
occur in the great unexplored regions south of 
the Yukon, because of its presence in the wash 
of the streams ; and it is quite probable that 
the Yukon gold belt extends to the north and 
west ; but this can be determined only by fur- 
ther exploration. That a second ' ' California 
gold belt " exists in Alaska may not be prob- 
able, but that there is fair prospect of a steady 
yield of gold is certain. 

There appeared in the New York Sun of 



28 THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

January M, 1897, a description of the un- 
known region lying north of Cooks Inlet, 
accompanied by a sketch map made by the 
prospectors. This map takes in a rather large 
area, and shows that the Alaska Mountains 
are broken down north of Cooks Inlet, and 
that the Sushitna Eiver extends almost directly 
north 150 miles, when it branches, one large 
tributary coming from the west and another 
from the northeast. The latter was followed 
up northward 200 miles to a large lake. The 
prospecting party report that they found fine 
gold in nearly every pan, and on the upper 
river platinmn. The rocks for the last forty 
miles below the falls and above the forks of 
the river are slate, porphyry, and granite, 
many veins of white quartz running through 
the slate. One specimen assayed well in 
silver, copper and gold. This is in the area 
to which it has been proposed to send one of 
the Geological Survey parties the next field 
season. 

On July 3, this year, about 1,300 gold 
seekers were scattered along the trails leading 
to the Klondike. There were 100 at Lake 
Lindeman, 270 at Lake Bennett, 400 along the 
river between the two lakes, and 600 at other 
points. Three companies have been organized 
to construct railroads into the Yukon country, 



THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 29 

on Canadian soil, and surveys are being made. 
One projected route is from Lynn Canal on 
White Pass. Ex- Senator Salisbury, of Dela- 
ware, has men in the field laying out a route 
from Takou Pass, while yet a third party is 
examining the Chilkat route. 

In Silver Bow Basin the Ebner mill is run- 
ning on high-grade ore, and the present plant 
is to be doubled this season, ten more stamps 
having been ordered. 

The Alaska-Juneau Company, operating in 
Silver Bow Basin, during June milled 2,300 
tons of ore and cleaned up $16,300. During 
the same period the Tread well milled 23,596 
tons of ore and cleaned up $67,000, at an ex- 
pense of $28,871. The Mexican milled 14,000 
tons, netting $17,900. 

The first strikes were made there about two 
years ago, and they were so rich that the 
stories of them which reached the mining 
settlements at Forty Mile and Circle City were 
ridiculed. The result was that throughout the 
summer there was no rush to the wonderful 
new diggings. Men came into Circle City or 
Forty Mile and announced that they had taken 
), $50, or even $100 from a pan of dirt on 



30 THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 

the Klondike, and the only result was to raise 
a laugh. The men who told the stories laughed 
too, took their supplies and went back. But 
their laugh was best, for they told the truth, 
and those who wouldn't believe it only left 
them the more time to pick the best for them- 
selves. 

In the fall, when the camps filled up with 
the men from the other diggings, but no one 
came in from the Klondike, it began to da^m 
on Circle City and Forty Mile that perhaps, 
after all, there was truth in the wonderful 
stories. Then began a great rush for the Klon- 
dike. It was like the old days of placer min- 
ing in California, and the whole stream was 
staked out in less than a week. Then the El 
Dorado, a little branch of the Klondike, was 
prospected, and there the rich Berry claims are 
located, from one of which $240 was taken 
from one pan of pay dirt. 

The world has never seen such placer mines 
as those of the Klondike. California in its 
very best days was nothing like it. Placer 
miners will work claims with great energy that 
pay 10 cents a pan, but claims on the Klondike 
aU last summer averaged a dollar a pan. 



THE KLONDIKE GOLD FIELDS. 31 

Miners' wages in the Yukon country had heen 
$10 a day hefore the Klondike strikes. Last 
summer they rose to an ounce a day, and even 
more. They can't get the dust very clean by 
their primitive methods, so an ounce up there 
is worth only about $17.50 or $18, but that is 
a big increase on $10. 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

Personal Statements From Those Who 
Have Been There. 

In the midst of hysterical and conflicting 
rumors about the new gold fields, two bold 
facts are patent. First, upward of $5,000,000 
in gold dust and nuggets have reached San 
Francisco from the Klondike, and second, that 
thousands of argonauts of '97 are flocking to 
the New El Dorado. 

The reason for the conflicting rumors is self- 
evident. Two influences are at work exactly 
as they are in Wall street and in the same 
way, namely, the bulls and the bears. The 
bulls are booming the Klondike to an extent 
that outrages credulity. The bears, on the 
contrary, cannot invent any story too horrible 
to depict the new field. The bulls are 
anxious to have the new region flooded with 
humanity. The bears desire to keep the people 
out. Who are the bulls ? Who are the bears ? 
The answer is not difficult to find. The bulls 
have something to sell — they are the railroad, 




THB HULL 



AND 
(T'VrO BIDES OF 




"What profiteth a man. "—A'. Y. HermlM. 
THE BEAB. 



THE PICTURE.) 



HITMAN DOCUMENTS. SS 

steamship and transportation companies; the 
merchants and dealers in mining machinery 
and necessaries; the adventurers, who create 
fake mining companies and sell the shares in 
large numbers at small prices to a feverish, 
gullible and eager public ; the holders of titles 
to mining claims in Alaska, some good, some 
worthless, and lastly, the class that lives on 
the weaknesses of aggregated masses of excited 
humanity, the gamblers and purveyors of vice 
of all kinds. 

The bears are much less numerically than 
the bulls. They are interested in keeping 
people out of the New El Dorado. They are 
exercising a very human quality by crying 
^^wolf," and trying to get all that is possible 
for themselves, and keep away the crowd until 
they can partition the balance among their 
friends. In all mining rushes there have been 
bulls and bears, and probably always will be. 

As all men view human testimony from a 
different coign of mental vantage, and as it is 
yet too early for any one to assume the func- 
tions of an historian of the Klondike, the state- 
ments, as reported in American newspapers, of 
a considerable number of men who have been 



Ut HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

on th© ground are here given for what thej are 
worth. The statements have been shorn of 
all superfluous verbiage and are jumbled to- 
gether somewhat in the order in which they 
appeared in the press throughout the coujitry. 
Although they form a kaleidoscopic picture of 
the gold fields, the reader can draw conclusions 
according to his experience of human nature 
and his mental attitude. 

Joaquin Miller, the poet, writing from Vic- 
toria, B. C, on July 26, 1897, says : 

* * There will be no starvation under any cir- 
cumstances in the Klondike mines either this 
year or next. A great many people are crying 
**wolf!" when they can, as you can see by a 
little counting, find no wolf at all. For, to 
say nothing of the thousands of tons taken in 
by the steamer, all the men who have gone in 
by the way I am now going, what is called the 
^* short cut," took in and are still taking in 
loads and loads of supplies. 

**Now, I am not going to take the responsi- 
bility of advising any one to come on this year. 
But of two things I am certain, from what I 
have found out since coming to the Sound. 
First, there is no possible chance for a famine 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. S5 

in the mines, and, second, the dangers and 
hardships and cost of getting there have been 
greatly exaggerated. '' 

On the same day, Louis Sloss, the head of the 
Alaska Commercial Company said : ' ^ I regard 
it as a crime for any transportation company to 
encourage men to go to the Yukon this fall. 
With the present and prospective rush, it will be 
impossitle to get enough provisions through to 
supply the demand. The Seattle people who are 
booming the steamship lines may be sincere, 
but a heavy responsibility will rest on their 
shoulders should starvation and crime prevail 
in Dawson City next winter. 

** We have tried to give the facts to all ap- 
pUcants and discourage this wild rush of clerks, 
professional men and women who are unused 
to any hardships, and whose chances of get- 
ting out of the country aUve will be very 
slender, even though they should make money. 
Conditions are radically different from those in 
Cahfornia in the early days. Those who 
crossed the plains or came by the Isthmus, 
found here a genial climate and plenty of food. 
They also turned to other vocations when 
mining proved improfitable. But on the 



36 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

Yukon, if a man can't get work as a miner, he 
must leave the country or starve. If it is 
winter he cannot get out, and so, should the 
food supply run low, hundreds will perish 
miserably. Hence, I repeat it is a crime to 
encourage this rush, which can only end in 
disaster for three-quarters of the new arrivals." 

A New York man, whose interests would 
not allow the publication of his name, familiar 
with Alaska mining and Alaska mines, made 
some interesting statements in the course of an 
interview published in a metropolitan news- 
paper, on July 14, 1897. ''There is this differ- 
ence," said he, ''between California in '49 and 
Alaska in '97. Alaska is all staked out. The 
news has not gone abroad until the people near 
at hand, the people who have spent money, 
time, and their very lives in developing the 
country, the people, in short, who deserved 
the reward, had seized on everything in sight. 

Down along the coast in the quartz lodes, 
the stamp mills have been established one by 
one, twenty stamps here, forty there. They 
have not any of them begun to be worked as 
hard as the available ore will permit. Work 
in Alaska cannot be said to have begun. 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 37 

There was never anywhere anything like it. 
To sum the whole thing up, I believe that 
right in the Alaska gold deposits is the mother 
vein of the gold of North America. The placer 
deposits in the Yukon country are the wash- 
ings from those same rich sources. Years 
ago, in 1888, as nearly as I can remember, the 
placer miners began working over Chilkat 
Pass and into the Yukon district. Poorly clad, 
badly provisioned, they went out year after 
year. Some of them v/ent half crazy. But 
they found gold. They came back and brought 
their friends in with them next time. The 
very immensity of what they found worked in 
their favor. They told the truth, the exact 
truth. It sounded like the boastful inventions 
of men who were trying to conceal their disap- 
pointment. Now, when the gold dust itself is 
beginning to come out of the mountains, people 
believe them. But its too late now to go up 
there with the idea of making money out of 
the mines. Everything is gobbled up. It is 
no poor man's country. A man might as well 
start out from Juneau, after all his kit and 
outfit are bought, without a cent as without 
$500 or $600. But it is a country every 



38 HUMAN DOCUMEISTS. 

American who can afford to travel ought to 

see," 

Another New Yorker, John F. Piummer, who 
is interested in the Alaska stamp mills, knows 
the region well, having been there frequently, 
and who could give ''some inside facts" to the 
general public if he cared to, has thus far con- 
fined his comments for publication to the fol- 
lowing optimistic statement : ' ' Too much can 
not be said about the wealth of that whole 
country. The Alaska purchase was the crown- 
ing act of William H. Seward's life." 

What the actual conditions at the Klondike 
diggings are and have been since the first big 
strike there in the midsummer of 1890 will be 
a matter of more interest to the reader than 
any opinions and speculations of Eastern ' ' ten- 
derfeet." 

On March 24, 1897, Oscar Ashby, in a per- 
sonal letter dated at Circle City, said in part : 

" Our town is very quiet at present, every 
one having gone to the big excitement at Klon- 
dike. Everybody has gone crazy over it. This 
country has an unparalleled futiire. There 
are thousands of acres that men will not, in 
fact, camiotj look at until provisions are 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 89 

cheaper. I understand that wages here will 
be $12 a day. There is not enough help to 
supply the demand on the creeks. Dogs are 
worth all kinds of money, from $75 to $300 
each." 

Another report stated that live dogs were 
worth from $2 to $5 a pound, being a scarce 
commodity in that region. Flour at Klondike 
was worth $100 a sack of fifty pounds, and 
everything else in proportion. At that time 
(March, '97), according to a private letter from 
a miner, who is perfectly trustworthy, gravel 
was frozen eighteen to twenty feet deep to bed 
rock. He says : ' ' We burn a shaft down and 
then drift, using fire instead of powder. The 
gravel runs in gold from $5 to $150 a pan, and the 
young fellow on a claim above me panned out 
$40,000 in two days. I was offered $250,000 
cash for my claim. I still hold the ground, 
and will be either a millionaire or a pauper in 
the fall. Every newcomer in the camp is 
offered big wages, as high as $50 a day, but 
seldom will any one work for another. The 
only phantom that stands in our way to the 
goal of a millionaire is grub. I have provisions 
enough to last me till next June, and I am as 



40 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

well fixed as any man in the country. If the 
boats do not get up the river before July we 
will be in hard times." 

Doubtless this miner was able to lay in such 
food supplies as he required, as boats went up 
the river some time prior to July. 

On July 14 the steamer Excelsior arrived in 
San Francisco, bringing with it $250,000 in 
gold dust for the Alaska Commercial Company. 
The same steamer brought forty miners from 
the new Klondike mines, with gold amounting 
to over $500,000. Eanging in size from a 
hazelnut to fine birdshot and grains of sand, 
this mass of yellow gold was poured out on the 
counter at Selby's smelting works on Mont- 
gomery street, the United States Mint having 
closed for the day when the miners arrived, 
and then shovelled with copper scoops into the 
great melting pot. Those who saw the gold 
in one heap said no such spectacle had been 
seen in 'Frisco since the days of '49, when 
miners used to come down there from the 
placer districts and change their gold for $20 
pieces. Mr. and Mrs. T. S. Lippey, who left 
the Golden Gate in April, 1896, were the luck- 
iest of these miners. They went in by way of 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 41 

Juneau, over the divide, and Mrs. Lippey, who 
is small and sinewy, with skin tanned to the 
color of sole leather, was the first woman to go 
over this trail. She seemed to have profited 
physically as well as pecuniarily b} her hard- 
ships in the Yukon territory, and the antlers 
of a moose which she exhibited on her arrival 
testified to her skill as a rifle shot. The Lip- 
peys brought back $60,000. Similar instances 
of good luck might be chronicled here indefi- 
nitely, but it is far from tlie purpose of this 
little volume to mislead any one by relating 
only the stories of those who have ' ' struck it 
rich" in Alaska. For every individual on 
whom fortune will smile in this great unde- 
veloped country, there will be a dozen who will 
perish from exposure or starvation, or come to 
an untimely end from some other cause. But 
it v/ere foolish to play the role of a prophet of 
evil to those adventurous spirits who are seized 
with the gold fever. Many of them will go 
anyway — in spite of friends' dissuasions, wives' 
tears or the binding ties of home. To such 
men there is advice and information in these 
p^g^s that will prove invaluable. 

But more is to be said concerning the won- 



42 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

derfiil discoveries in the Upper Yukon region, 
and we shall repeat only verified facts in our 
effort to present what every intelligent Ameri- 
can citizen ought to know. The steamer Ex- 
celsior, to which we have alluded, also brought 
a letter from one of the officials of the Alaska 
Commercial Company, at Circle City, giving 
this account of the stampede to the new dig- 
gings : 

* ' The excitement on the river is indescrib- 
able, and the output of the new Klondike dis- 
trict is almost beyond belief. Men who had 
nothing last fall are nov/ worth a fortune. One 
man has worked forty square feet of his claim, 
and is going out with $40,000 in dust. One- 
quarter of the claims are now selling at from 
$15,000 to $50,000. The estimate of the dis- 
trict is given as thirteen square miles, with an 
average of $300,000 to the claim, while some 
are valued as high as $1,000,000 each. A 
number of claims have been purchased for large 
sums on a few months' credit, and the amount 
has been paid out of the ground before it be- 
came due. 

' ' At Dawson sacks of gold dust are thrown 
imder the counter in the stores for safe keeping. 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 43 

The peculiar part of it is that most of the loca- 
tions were made by men who came in last year, 
old-timers not having had faith in the indica- 
tions until the value of the region was assured, 
whereupon prices jumped so high that they 
could not get in. Some of the stories are so 
fabulous I am afraid to repeat them for fear of 
being suspected of the infection. 

' * There are other discoveries reported a little 
beyond and on the Stewart Kiver, but these 
have not yet been verified. Labor is $15 a day 
and board, with 100 days' work guaranteed ; so 
you can imagine how difficult it is to hold em- 
ployees. Men who were looking for bits last 
year are now talking and showing thousands, 
and the air is full of millions. If the reports 
are ti*ue, it is the biggest placer discovery ever 
made in the world, for, though other diggings 
have been found quite as rich in spots, no such 
extent of dirt has been known which prospected 
and v/orked so high right through." 

Mr. J. C. Hestwood, who has spent three 
years in Alaska, has given a very good descrip- 
tion of the chances for the tenderfoot. He 
says : ** To go into the Yukon requires $250 
for an outfit, and about the same amount in 



44 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

cash. To do anything in mining, except as a 
day laborer, requires from $5,000 upward. 
The rich pay dirt is only struck near the bed 
rock, and this generally lies from eighteen to 
twenty-five feet below the surface. The 
method of mining is to remove the surface 
mass, which is eighteen inches thick, and then 
build a fire, which burns all night. In the 
morning the gravel is shaved down about two 
feet. This is shovelled out, and another fire 
is built, and in this slow and laborious way the 
ground is removed to bed rock. This work can 
be carried on all winter, except when the mer- 
cury falls below 60*^. 

' ' Dawson City is having a remarkable boom. 
Provisions were scarce and dear last winter, 
and all supplies are costly. An ordinary 75 
cents pocket-knife sells for $4, and shoes bring 
from $6 to $8. A dog sledge-load of eggs was 
brought in last winter from Juneau. About 
half were spoiled, but the whole lot sold readily 
at $4 per dozen. Flour sold as high as $1 a 
pound." 

Mr. Hestwood has a mine in the new Bonanza 
Creek district. He thus describes his output: 
* * The gold is the color of brass, and is worth 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 45 

$16 to $17 an ounce. It isn't as pure gold as 
is found elsewhere on the Yukon. We didn't 
hear of McKinley's election until last June, 
but there were few silver men in camp. Some, 
however, feared that gold would depreciate in 
value because of the prospective enormous out- 
put of these mines. Circle City and Forty 
Mile have suffered the usual fate of mining 
camps which have petered out, only these camps 
have not petered out. When gold was found in 
such astonishing quantities on the tributaries 
of the Klondike the whole population of those 
camps moved bodily to the junction of the 
Klondike and Yukon rivers, where Dawson 
City is established. This district, the richest 
placer country in the world, was discovered 
by an old hunter named Cormack, who has 
a squaw for a wife and several half breed 
children. 

' ^ It is easier to reach Dawson City now than 
when the discovery of gold was first announced. 
Appliances have been placed at all the moun- 
tain passes, so that heavy loads are pulled up 
steep inclines and let down on the other side. 
I look for a big rush next year, and there will 
be wonderful stories to tell when the season is 



4:6 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

ended. Dawson City is not a paradise by any 
means, but there are much worse places. 

The winter cold is intense, but as there is 
plenty of timber around we do not suffer. Our 
summer lasts about six weeks, but during that 
time it is very warm. The day we started it 
was 93° in the shade. The mosquito is our 
worst enemy." 

An old miner, Alexander Orr, who spent 
eight years in Alaska has this to say about 
Dawson: ^'It is not like most of the mining 
camps. It is not a tough town; murders are 
almost unknown. The miners are a quiet, 
peaceable kind of men, who have gone there to 
work, and are willing that everybody else shall 
have an equal chance with themselves. A great 
deal of gambling is done in town, but serious 
quarrels are the exception. As a gambling 
town I think it is equal to any I have ever 
seen, and this, by the way, is always the test 
of a mining camp's prosperity. Stud poker is 
the usual game. They play $1 ante, and often 
bet $300 or $500 on the third card." 

The following short interviews with returned 
miners will perhaps convey the best idea of 
what has been done at Dawson and vicinity: 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 47 

*'I went to Alaska two years ago," said Fred. 
Lendeseen, ' ' and when I left there I brought 
with me $13,000 in gold dust. I have had con- 
siderable experience in mining, and say with- 
out hesitation that Alaska is the richest coun- 
try I have ever seen. I have an interest in a 
claim near Dawson and am going back in the 
spring of '98." 

Greg. Stewart: 

**I had a partner and I sold out my in- 
terest for $45,000 and put my money back 
again at interest in mines. My partner had 
1,500 ounces of dust, but it fell short four 
ounces on the way down. The dust will go 
over $17 an ounce, but we are all waiting for 
returns from the smelting works. I brought a 
few hundred ounces with me, but I get interest 
of two per cent, on short loans." 

William Kulju: 

^^I brought down just 1,000 ounces of dust 
and sold it to smelting works. I worked at 
El Dorado Creek, near Dawson, and was in 
that country about a year and had a couple of 
dollars and a pack last simimer when I went 
in. I sold my claim for $25,000, part cash and 
the balance to be paid as it is taken out. Now 



4:S HtrMAN DOCUMENTS. 

I am taking a trip to the old country — Fin- 
land — and am coming back in 1898." 

Con. Stamatim: 

**Iwas mining on shares with a partner. 
He's still there. We worked on Alexander Mc- 
Donald's ground in El Dorado for forty-five 
days and took out $33,000. We got fifty per 
cent, and the other half went to McDonald. 
Then we divided our share and I came away." 

Thomas Hack: 

'^My dust will bring more than $6,000. I 
have an interest in two claims on the El 
Dorado. One partner sold out for $50,000 and 
another for $55,000. I had an offer of $50,000, 
but refused just before I came out." 

Eobert Kooks: 

^^ I've been four years in Alaska. I had a 
half interest in a claim on El Dorado Creek and 
sold out to my partner for $12,000. I bought 
a half interest in a claim on the Bonanza, be- 
low the Discovery claim, and my share is worth 
easily $15, 000. I brought $14, 000 in gold dust, 
and shall return in the spring of '98 after rest 
and recreation." 

Thomas Cook: 

**It is a good country, but if there is a rush 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 49 

there's going to be a great deal of suffering. 
Over 2,000 men are there at present and 2,000 
more will be in before snow falls. I've been at 
placer mining for years in California and Brit- 
ish Columbia, and the mines at Dawson are 
more extensive and beyond anything I ever 
saw. Last year I did very well at Dawson. 
I have a claim worth about the average, they 
nm from $25,000 to $50,000, on Boar Creek, 
across the divide from the Bonanza." 

M. S. Norcross: 

**T was sick and couldn't work, so I cooked 
for Mr. McNamee. Still I had a claim on the 
Bonanza, but didn't know what was in it, be- 
cause I couldn't work it. I sold out last 
spring for $10,000, and was satisfied to get a 
chance to return to my home in Los Angeles." 

John Marks: 

^* I brought $11,500 in gold dust with me, 
but I had to work for every bit of it. There is 
plenty of gold in Alaska, more, I believe, than 
the most sanguine imagine, but it can not be 
obtained without great effort and endurance. 
The first thing for a poor man to do when he 
reaches the country is to begin prospecting. 
As snow is from two to five feet deep, prospect- 



60 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

ing is not very easy. Snow must first be 
shovelled away, and then a fire built on the 
ground to melt the ice. As the ground thaws 
the shaft must be sunk until bed rock is 
reached. The average prospector has to sink 
a great many shafts before he reaches any- 
thing worth his while. If gold is found in 
sufficient quantities to pay for working, he 
may begin drifting from the shaft, and con- 
tinue to do so as long as he finds enough gold 
to pay." 

S. B. Hollinshead: 

^ ' I was in the diggings about two years and 
brought out about 1,500 ounces, which I sup- 
pose will bring $17 an ounce. I'm not sure 
about going back, though I have a claim on 
Gold Bottom Creek, fifteen miles from Bonanza. 
It is less than a year since I located my claim. 
My dust will bring over $25,000." 

Albert Fox: 

^' My partner and I went into the district in 
1895 and secured two claims. We sold one 
for $45,000. I brought 300 ounces, which 
netted $5,000. Everybody is at Dawson for 
the present. The district is apt to be overrun. 
I wouldn't advise anyone to go there this fall 







T^ '^- //: 



«^P o. T.KOK PiaO«09.-.KBOWS SHOW MI^BKS' RO^TE. 



> 
d 



k 




HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 61 

('97) for people are likely to go hungry before 
next spring." 

The founder of Dawson City is James Ladue, 
who has been in Alaska for fifteen years. He did 
not strike it rich until the discovery of gold in 
Bonanza Creek. On July 16th, 1897, Mr. Ladue 
made the following statements to a newspaper 
correspondent in San Francisco: "Dawson City 
is not unlike some of the mining towns here in 
this State (California) and elsewhere, with the 
difference that no lawlessness exists. The 
people realize that they must depend to a cer- 
tain extent on one another, though the Cana- 
dian Government has been a powerful factor 
in keeping down the unruly. The history of 
Dawson City is interesting. I built the first 
house in it and raised the first American flag. 
The discovery of gold in that immediate local- 
ity was made by Eobert Henderson, who had 
been prospecting for years in the great north- 
west at a place called Gold Bottom, although 
George W. Cormack brought to light the riches 
of Bonanza Creek. As soon as news of the 
great find reached Circle City and Forty Mile 
men threw up their claims and hastened to the 
new fields. There was promise of trouble at 



62 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

first because the men were crazed over the 
prospect, but cooler heads finally prevailed and 
a meeting was held on the banks of the creek 
and ground was allotted to each man. The 
claims were cut from 500 to 100, and there was 
again a threat of trouble until the Dominion 
Surveyor, William Ogilvie, arrived and resur- 
veyed all claims. Under the new ruling each 
claim extends 500 feet along the bottom of the 
creek, the width being governed by the dis- 
tance between the mountains. This will aver- 
age 600 feet, though there are some claims 
1,000 feet wide." 

On July 17, 1897, the steamship Portland, 
belonging to the North American Transpor- 
tation and Trading Company, reached Seattle 
direct from St. Michael's, at the mouth of the 
Yukon River in Alaska, with sixty-eight pas- 
sengers — mostly miners fresh from the Klon- 
dike placer mining district, from which more 
than 11,500,000 gold was taken in the winter 
of 1896-7. 

These argonauts brought back one and one- 
half tons of gold in nuggets and dust, worth 
in round numbers $1,000,000. They reported 
that from San Francisco to the f ui^thermost point 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 53 

in Alaska the coast was wild with the excite- 
ment growing out of the fabulous finds in the 
Klondike. It is fifty miles by river from Forty 
Mile, on the Alaska boundary, to the scene of 
the recent finds, and about forty miles in a 
straight line. 

William Stanley of Seattle, formerly a black- 
smith, went into Alaska in 1895. He returned 
home with $115,000 in gold nuggets and dust. 
His claim is on the Bonanza Creek, five miles 
above Dawson City. 

Clarence Berry, formerly a farmer of Fresno, 
Cal., brought back seven sacks containing 
$135,000, having gone to the Yukon in 1894, 
*^My luck was bad for three years," said he 
to an interviewer. ** Last fall I came out and 
married, and when I went back I heard of the 
Klondike. I was early on the grounds, locating 
with other parties three claims on El Dorado 
Creek. We struck it rich. That's all there 
is to tell. Last winter I took out $130,000 in 
thirty box l^rgths. A box length is 12 by 15 
feet, and in one length I found $10,000. An- 
other time the second largest nugget ever 
found in the Yukon was taken out of my 
claim. It weighed thirteen ounces and was 



54 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

worth $213. I have known men to take out 
$1,000 a day from a drift claim. Of course 
the gold was found in pockets and those finds, 
you can rest assured, were very scarce. I would 
not advise a man to take in an outfit that would 
cost less than $500. He must expect to be dis- 
appointed and the chances are that he may work 
for years without finding a paying claim, and 
again he may be lucky enough to strike it 
rich. The country is wild, rough, and full of 
hardships for those unused to the regions of 
Arctic winter. If a man makes a fortune he 
is liable to earn it by severe hardships and suf- 
ferings, but then grit, perseverance and luck 
will probably reward hard work with a com- 
fortable income for life." 

Henry Anderson, a native of Sweden, came 
back to Seattle with $45,000 spot cash, the pro- 
ceeds of the sale of a one-half interest in a 
claim on El Dorado Creek. T. J. Kelly and son 
of Tacoma went into the diggings in 1896 and 
made $10,000. The son is in charge of the 
claim, the father having returned on the Port- 
land. 

Frank Keller of Los Angeles, went to the 
gold fields in 1896, mined during the winter 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 55 

and sold his claim for $35, 000. William Sloat, 
formerly a dry goods merchant of Lanimo, B. 
C, sold his claim for $52,000, and with the 
gold he took from the mine came back on the 
Portland. Another man named Wilkenson of 
Lanimo, sold his claim for $40,000 and came 
back to stay. 

Jack Home, a pugilist of Tacoma, dug up 
$6,000 and left the field for good. Frank 
Phiscator of Baroda, Mich., returned with 
$96,000, the result of his labors in Miles. 

J. Keller^ who did well in Klondike, returned 
on the Portland, and had this to say about the 
country: ^^It was 68 degrees below zero last 
winter and the ground was frozen to the depth 
of forty feet. The snow doesn't fall to any 
great depth, three feet being the greatest, and 
that was light and fleecy frost. All the gold is 
taken out of gravel by thawing in the summer. 
There are nine months of winter. We left 
Dawson City on a river steamer on June 19, 
and were eight days reaching St. Michaels, 
1,800 miles. The weather in Klondike was 
warm and sultry, much warmer than it seemed 
and mosquitoes were in myriads. They are in 
the water one drinks. They give a man no 



56 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

rest day or night. It is a horrible country to 
live in, but it is extremly healthy. Every man 
is on his good behavior and for a mining country 
has as good, orderly, law-abiding citizens as I 
ever saw." 

Americans, who emigrated en masse from 
Forty Mile, the Alaska diggings, and from 
Circle City, when the news of the great strikes 
reached these places in the spring of 1897, are 
largely in the majority among the claim owners 
in the Klondike country. 

There are two routes that lead into the 
Klondike. By steamer from Seattle to St. 
Michaels, and then by river boat up the Yu- 
kon to Dawson City, is the best but the more 
expensive route, which takes thirty-five to 
forty days, the cost being $180. Each steam- 
er passenger is allowed but 150 pounds of 
baggage. The other is a land route by way 
of Juneau, over which it is impossible to carry 
any large quantity of provisions, as every 
pound of supplies must be carried on Indians' 
backs over Chilkoot Pass and by frequent por- 
tages separating the lakes and streams on this 
overland route. Dogs are also used in sled- 
ding svipplies over the mountains to camp. 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 57 

Because of fierce storms, the Juneau route 
after September 15 is impassable to all except 
Indians, and even they sometimes perish on 
the journey. This trip is described by Joseph 
Ladue, who owns the town site of Dawson 
City, in this wise : ' ' Leaving Juneau, you go 
to Dyea by way of Lime Canal, and from there 
to Lake Linderman, thirty miles on foot, or 
portage, as we call it. The lake gives you a 
ride of five or six miles, and then follows an- 
other long journey overland to the head waters 
of Lake Bennett, which is twenty-eight miles 
long. On foot you go again for several miles, 
and then the caribou crossing of the river fur- 
nishes transportation for four miles to Tagish 
Lake, where another twenty-one-mile boat ride 
may be had. 

^^This is followed by a weary stretch of 
mountainous country, and then Marsh or Mud 
Lake is reached. You get another boat ride of 
twenty-four miles, and then go down the creek 
for twenty-seven miles to Miles Canon and to 
White Horse Eapids. 

' ' This is one of the most dangerous places 
on the entire route, and should be avoided by 
all strangers. The stream is full of sunken 



68 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

rocks and runs with the speed of a mill-race. 
Passing White Horse Eapids, the journey is 
down the river for thirty miles to Lake La- 
barge, where thirty- one miles of navigable 
water is found. Another short portage and 
Lous River is reached, where you have a 200- 
mile journey, which brings you to Fort Sel- 
kirk. At this point Pelly and Lous Eivers 
come together, forming the Yukon. From 
that point on is practically smooth sailing, 
though the stranger must be exceedingly care- 
ful. 

''It may be said with absolute truth that 
Dawson City is one of the most moral towns of 
its kind in the world. There is little or no 
quarrelling and no brawls of any kind, though 
there is considerable drinking and gambling. 
Every man carries a pistol if he wishes to, yet 
it is a rare occurrence when one is displayed. 
The principal sport with mining men is found 
around the gambling table. There they gather 
after nightfall and play until the late hours in 
the morning. They have some big games, too. 
It sometimes costs as much as $50 to draw a 
card. A game with $2,000 as stakes is an or- 
dinary event. But with all of that there has 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 59 

not been decided trouble. If a man is fussy 
and quarrelsome he is quietly told to get out of 
the game, and that is the end of it. Many 
people have an idea that Dawson City is com- 
pletely isolated and can communicate with the 
outside world only once in every twelve 
months. That is a big mistake, however. 
Circle City, only a few miles away, has a mail 
once each month, and there we have our mail 
addressed. It is true the cost is pretty high, 
$1 a letter and $2 for a paper; yet by that ex- 
penditure of money we are able to keep in 
direct communication with our friends on the 
outside. In the way of public institutions our 
camp is at present without any, but by next 
season we will have a church, a music-hall, a 
schoolhouse and a hospital. This last institu- 
tion will be under the direct control of the 
Sisters of Mercy, who have already been sta- 
tioned for a long time at Circle City and Forty 
Mile Camp. 

* ^ Nearly a score of children were in Dawson 
City when I left, so I donated a lot and $100 
for a school. No one can buy anything on 
credit in Dawson. It is spot cash for every 



60 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

one, and pajrment is always gold dust. Very- 
few have any regular money." 

At this writing Dawson promises to have 
80,000 or more before the spring of '98, when 
a new route to the Klondike will be opened 
from Juneau to Fort Selkirk, on the Yukon, 
overland. It has been inspected and pro- 
nounced practicable by Capt. Goodall of the 
Pacific Coast Steamship Company. It crosses 
the divide over Chilkat Pass, which is lower 
and more easily traversed than Chilkoot Pass. 
This trail is named from old Pioneer Dalton 
and is about 700 miles long. No lakes or 
rivers are on the route, the trail running over 
a high level prairie, which is well adapted for 
driving stock, but for men the tramp is too 
long. 

Mr. H. A. Stanley, the proprietor of the 
Binghamton Evening Herald^ went to Alaska 
for his health in 1896. He spent the winter 
on St. Michael Island, and was the only news- 
paper man who witnessed the arrival of the 
''• Portus B. Weare," the first passenger steam- 
er to reach there from up the mighty river, 
after the great discoveries in Klondike. Mr. 
Stanley sent an interesting letter to his paper 



"" HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 61 

dated June 27, 1897. From the letter are here 
given a few graphic excerpts : 

* ' The Weare steamed around the low head- 
land and drowned the frantic cheering of the 
crowds on both banks with its hoarse whistle. 
The Portland and Excelsior, drawing in excess 
of nineteen feet of water, were obliged to lie 
out a mile or more from shore, but the Weare, 
built for river traffic, and drawing only a few 
feet, was enabled to steam up the shallow har- 
bor and touch the dock. As she steamed near, 
friends who had not met in months or years 
greeted one another from deck to deck, and 
wives and children, who had come to meet 
fathers and husbands, frantically threw kisses, 
and wept and laughed by turns. A more ex- 
cited throng was never seen. 

*'That the Weare brought good news was 
evident. Husbands, fathers and friends held 
up nuggets of glittering gold or bags of it 
before the eyes of those aboard the Portland, 
and the news was shouted across that a great 
strike had been made. ' Circle City is busted, ' 
' Only three white men live in it,' ' The Klon- 
dike is the richest mining region on earth to- 
day; hurrah for the new proposition,' 'Circle 



0*2 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

City is the silent city.' These and kindred 
shouts rent the air. There was as great de- 
sire in the Portland to hear the news from up 
the river as there had been at St. Michael to 
hear from the outer world. * * * I talked 
with many of the returning miners. One, a 
poor boy of twenty-three, seemed dying of 
scurvy. In answer to my questions as to how 
big a stake he had, he raised his glassy eyes 
and said, ^ don't ask me questions. I've had 
good luck and hard luck.' I was told that he 
had about $70,000 for his eighteen months of 
privations, but that he had hardly paid ex- 
penses before he made his strike in December, 
1896. * ^ * A captain of mounted police 
told me that the news of the great strike in 
the Klondike did not get to Circle City until 
December 15, '96, when there was a stam- 
pede." 

A great many of the gold seekers go from 
San Francisco, but an equal, probably greater, 
number will doubtless be setting out from 
Seattle^ the facilities for travel from that port 
having been increased by the transportation 
companies, and, of course, they will be further 
increased to meet future requirements. 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 63 

A former superintendent of the public schools 
of Seattle, W. P. C. Eichardson, who spent 
several years on the Yukon, gives the following 
account of his observations : 

' ' The Klondike is a stream several hundred 
miles long, as nearly as can be estimated, and 
from 200 to 300 feet wide, exceedingly rapid 
and difficult to navigate, by reason of swift 
current and overhanging trees, or sweepers, as 
they are called in that country. Its waters 
were clear before the discovery of gold, but 
they are now muddy from the wash of sluice 
boxes. The mines are not on the Klondike 
proper, but on Bonanza, Hunter, Bear and 
other creeks. The Bonanza empties into the 
Klondike about a mile from its mouth. Hun- 
ter Creek is fourteen miles above, while El 
Dorado is a branch of Bonanza, branching off 
several miles from the mouth of the Klondike. 
The stories of the wonderful product of the 
rivers and creeks I have named are not in the 
least exaggerated. On the contrary, the true 
story remains to be told. From what I have 
seen of it, I think it has a solid bottom, good 
for the next twenty-five years as a placer min- 
ing country, such as the world has rarely pro- 



64 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

duced. As soon as transportation facilities are 
secured, it will not be a bad country to live in. 
Stewart Eiver, farther up, in my opinion, is 
equally rich. It was prospected in 1880, and 
its bars panned out as high as $100 to a man 
in one day. The river diggings along Stewart 
River were only abandoned by reason of their 
being so remote from the base of supply at the 
time to which I refer. Like the Klondike, this 
river has its source in the Rocky Mountains. 
The Rockies here present the same general 
appearance of the Cascade range as seen from 
Seattle. These mountains have not been pros- 
pected, and they present an exceedingly at- 
tractive field to the prospector. In my opinion, 
they not only contain placer ground, but very 
rich quartz. Stewart River is larger than the 
Klondike, and will soon be a scene of greater 
activity than is now witnessed on the tribu- 
taries of the Klondike." 

As so many interests are concentrated in 
and about Dawson City, it is pertinent to quote 
the latest statements, at this writing, of Joseph 
Ladue, who built the first cabin there, erected 
the first sawmill and secured the patent to the 
site which he is said to be selling in lots in reg- 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 65 

ulation boom town style. He tells the story as 
follows ; 

'^ I went north in the summer of '82, and 
landed at Sixty Mile Creek, in the Northwest 
Territory, but had no luck at all. I next tried 
the Stewart River, and mined for one summer 
in the bar diggings, as they call them. These 
are deposits of fine gold brought down by the 
rivers from the glacial regions and lodged in 
bars formed by the eddies in the river. I did 
a little better there, but did not begin to get 
much, so I went to Belle Isle Station, in 
Alaska, and started trading for the Alaska 
Commercial Company. I kept that up until 
the fall of 1886, when I went to Forty Mile 
Creek, and did well at bar and gulch diggings 
^t the first gulch in the river, which is known 
as Franklin Gulch, because the first rich strike 
was made there by H. H. Franklin, who 
founded the town of Juneau. I mined for two 
whole summers at Forty Mile Creek, and then 
went over the boundary line, about 300 miles, 
to Fort Selkirk, where I began ranching. I 
raised potatoes, turnips, radishes, cabbages, 
barley and oats, but the frost nipped almost 
everything, and I struck out again by estab- 
lishing Sixty Mile Fort, or Ogilvie Fort, as a 
trading post. I put up a sawmill for the 
Alaska Commercial Company and remained 
there until last fall. 

' ' Robert Henderson was prospecting for me. 



66 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

and I have helped him out for four years. In 
fact, I kept him going. If I had not the 
chances are that Klondike would never have 
been discovered. 

" ' Rich?' I don't dare to say how rich it 
is. It is richer than any man has any thought 
of, and I am fearful only that people will rush 
in there in such numbers that they will create 
a famine. 

'' I founded the town of Dawson, and gave 
it the name of Mr. Dawson, who had charge 
Df the first surveying party for the Canadian 
Government in 1885. He is a very able and 
sociable man, and I named the town site as a 
little compliment to him. It is the most suit- 
able place that could be found in all that 
region, because it is fine, level ground, with 
good landing at the water's edge, and behind 
it is rolling country. The Klondike district is 
about twelve miles off. I moved the sawmill 
to Dawson last fall ('96), and it is running 
steadily. The men stand behind one another 
waiting to obtain their lumber, and it was all 
I could do to supply the demand. When I 
first located the town, and built the first cabin, 
the surveyors of the Canadian Government 
staked it out and I was made Postmaster, but 
I had too much other work to do, and had to 
give up being a public official. The town is 
laid out in streets and avenues, numbered in 







PICTORIAL MAP — JUNEAU TO KLONDIKE . 

— ^^ Y. Herald. 



68 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

American style, all the streets running one 
way and the avenues across. 

' ' Now, as to these strikes made there since 
last fall, they have been rich in almost every 
instance. I have been offered $100,000 for my 
interests there just as they stand, but I would 
not sell for three times that amount. The 
offer has been made to me in coin, but I de- 
clined, because I know what I have got there, 
and I know how to hold on to it. Many of the 
men who have come down here with a few 
thousand won't have a dollar of it in six 
months. There is plenty of gold there for steady 
men who know how to take care of it and 
are willing to work. It will take about $500 
to stake a man out for a year when he gets 
there, and he may strike it rich, or, again, he 
may scarcely make enough to pay his outlay. 
By the process of mining there a man does not 
know what he has in his dump, which he piles 
up during the winter, until spring. Then the 
ice breaks up, the water commences flowing, 
and he can sluice the gravel taken out during 
the winter. 

' ' For a man who has never done any min- 
ing, the best thing is to hire out to a man who 
knows the business. It is a trade that has to 
be learned. The wages are good, and a man 
who is willing to work will learn enough in 
one year to start on his own account and do 
better than if he tries as a green hand." 



HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 69 

From the tremendous mass of testimony re- 
garding the real situation on the Klondike, the 
following private letter from Thomas Davies, 
of the Seattle Times, to his sister, Mrs. G. W. 
Beardsley, of Binghamton, N. Y., is of em- 
phatic significance, as showing the extent of 
the gold fever on the Pacific Slope. He says : 

"As you have doubtless noticed, we are 
having a genuine old-fashioned boom. Ad- 
vance agent of prosperity has arrived — confi- 
dence restored, and on a gold basis, too. Prob^ 
ably one hundred of my friends who went to 
the Yukon have made from $10,000 to $500,000. 
Zilly got $70,000; Baker, who roomed at my 
house, $10,000; Lippy, myY. M. C. A. friend, 
brought out $65,000 on the year's work; left 
$150,000 on the *dump.' Everything wild- 
gold everywhere. I saw $400, 000 in gold dust 
with my own eyes when the steamer landed — 
the most I ever beheld. Policemen are quit- 
ting. The TtTues has lost nearly its entire re- 
portorial force. Clerks jump their counters — 
doctors their patients, and even the preachers 
shy around the pulpit. Every steamer goes 
out loaded in spite of the prospective hardships. 
It resembles the Oklahoma boom which I wit- 
nessed. Nearly all the grocery and supply 
houses are running double sets of help (where 
they don't quit), and working day and night. 



70 HUMAN DOCUMENTS. 

Woolen mills and stores are out of blankets 
and heavy clothing. If any one thinks of 
coming from Binghamton this fall tell them 
not to, for all passages are taken on boats for 
next two weeks, and then it will be too late. 

' ' Am thinking of going up myself in August, 
'97, — but don't know for certain — may not go 
until spring." 

A peculiar state of affairs exists in the Klon- 
dike, from the fact that its gold output is taken 
from property belonging chiefly to subjects of 
Uncle Sam and comes to this country. In 
order ^'to get even," as the phrase goes, the 
Canadian Government is establishing customs 
officers, levying a tariff on miners' supplies 
going into the territory, and finally putting an 
exorbitant tax on the output of mines. This 
energy on the part of Canada shows that 
she believes in her rights, and will enforce 
them. Whatever move she makes will not be 
in the interest of the people of the United 
States. Intending visitors to the Klondike 
should salt the above fact in their hats. 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

"All that glisters is not gold, 
Often have you heard that told. " 

— Shakespeare. 

It must be remembered that Klondike is not 
in the United States, nor in Alaska, but in 
that portion of Canada known as the North- 
west Territory. 

Five hundred dollars is the least amount 
that any man should start to the Klondike 
with. The poor man's route to the mines is 
via Seattle. From this point the distance to 
Juneau is 967 miles. At Juneau the traveler 
should provide himself with a proper outfit, 
provided he has not already done so at Seattle. 
This is the route from Juneau recommended 
by a former governor of Alaska in his last 
annual report, though since it was issued the 
most practicable and popular route has been by 
way of the Chilkoot Pass. Through this pass 
eight-tenths of the Argonauts of 1897 are 
making their way. 

Haine's Mission, 80 miles; head of canoe 
navigation, 106; summit of Chilkat Pass, 115; 



72 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

Lake Linderman, 124; head of Lake Bennett, 
129; foot of Lake Bennett, 155; foot of Caribou 
Crossing, 159; foot of Takou Lake, 175; Takceh 
House, 179; head of Mud Lake, 180; foot of 
Lake Marsh, 200; head of White Horse Eapids, 
228; Takaheena river, 240; head of Lake De- 
barge, 256; foot of Lake Debarge, 289; 
Hootalinqua, Lake Debarge, 289; Hoota- 
Hnqua, 320; Cassiar Bar, 347; Little Salmon 
river, 390; Five Fingers, 451; Pelly river, 610; 
Stewart river, 630; Forty Mile, 750 miles. 

Governor Sheakley gives some hints to the 
prospector which are worth repeating. ' ^ A large 
number of those who have gone to the Yukon 
region," says he, *^will not realize their ex- 
pectations * * * The miners make the 
local laws which govern the people. They de- 
cide what the law is and execute the decrees 
and decisions of the miner's meeting, both as 
to persons and property, so long as these meet- 
ings are kept under control of actual miners 
and working men, the rights of persons and of 
property will be comparatively safe. Property 
rights will be decided without delay and crime 
properly punished. The Canadian government 
maintains a police force, the captain of which 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 73 

is clothed with the powers of a trial magis- 
trate." 

Prospectors should not think of starting for 
Klondike before the month of March. Of the 
two routes the shortest or overland route is 
here first considered and is that taken by eighty 
per cent, of the prospectors. This route is by 
steamer to Juneau and thence inland. Here 
is a table showing the points of the journey and 
the distances, as given by another authority. 

THB OCEAN ROUTE. MILES. 

To St. Michael's 2,850 

To Circle City 4,350 

To Forty Mile 4,600 

To Klondike 4,650 

THE OVERLAND ROUTE. 

To Juneau by steamer . . . . . ^ 1,680 

Juneau to Chilkat 80 

Juneau to Dyea . 100 

Juneau to head of navigation 106 

Juneau to summit of Chilkat pass. ... 114 

Juneau to head of Lake Lindeman, . . . 123 

Juneau to foot of Lake Lindeman .... 127 

Juneau to head of Lake Bennett 128 

Juneau to foot of Tagish lake. ....... 173 

Juneau to head of Lake Marsh 178 

Juneau to head of Canyon 223 



74 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

Juneau to head of White Horse rapids. . 225 

Juneau to Takaheena river 240 

Juneau to head of Lake le Barge 256 

Juneau to foot of Lake le Barge 284 

Juneau to Hootalinqua river 316 

Juneau to Big Salmon river 349 

Juneau to Little Salmon river 385 

Juneau to Five Finger rapids 444 

Juneau to Eink rapids 450 

Juneau to Pelly river 503 

Juneau to White river 599 

Juneau to Stuart river 609 

Juneau to Sixty Mile post 629 

Juneau to Dawson City 678 

Juneau to Forty Mile post T28 

Juneau to Circle City 898 

Forty Mile to diggings at Miller creek . . 70 

Circle City to diggings at Birch creek. . 50 

Klondike to diggings 5 

Juneau is a seaport and mining town of about 
2,000 inhabitants, or was before the Klondike 
rush set in. It has schools and churches, three 
newspapers, electric light plant, water-works, 
two good wharves, large mercantile establish- 
ments, good hotels, paved streets and fire and 
hose companies. 

If the miner purchases his outfit at Juneau 
it will^ost him about $150. The fare from 
Juneau to Dyea, a distance of 100 miles, is $10, 



Y6 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

and the trip is made by steamer. At Dyea the 
prospector leaves civilization behind him. 

Miners should travel in groups of four to six 
persons, as they are thus able to economize in 
the matter of food and labor. The Indian 
packers charge 15 cents a pound for packing 
provisions from Dyea to Lake Lindeman, which 
is the roughest and most difficult part of the 
journey. At Lake Lindeman a boat must be 
constructed and it is well that one member of 
the party should have a practical knowledge 
of boat building. Between the waterways the 
boat must be dragged over the ground. 

Lake Lindeman is four miles long. Whei 
the end is reached, the boat must be dragged 
for over a mile to Lake Bennett. When the 
foot of Lake Bennett has been reached, the 
boat is lifted on a sledge and dragged to the 
Caribou crossing, three miles away. 

Leaving Caribou crossing the party travels 
an uneven, hard road to the foot of Lake 
Tagish, 17 miles away. Lake Marsh is trav- 
ersed with little difficulty. It ends in a deep 
canyon. 

Beyond the canyon are the White Horse 
rapids and the Tahkeena river, which opens 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 77 

into Lake le Barge, 256 miles from Juneau. 
The Hootalinqua river, Cassiar bar, Big Sal- 
mon river and Little Salmon river, the Five 
Finger rapids and the Eink rapids are next 
passed. The Eink rapids are 450 miles from 
Juneau. 

The Eink rapids extend for over 53 miles, 
and it is impossible for a boat to live in them. 
The craft must be dragged to the Pelly river, 
the most important point thus far reached. 
The prospector next travel down the Pelly river 
for 96 miles, until they reach the White river. 
At the confluence of the two streams the Yukon 
opens before them 2,044 miles from its mouth. 

The route now leads down the Yukon ten 
miles and across the Stuart river. Twenty 
miles farther, is Sixty Mile post. For over 60 
miles the stream flows through a bleak region. 
Then Fort Eeliance, a small post, is passed. 
There is nothing to eat there. 

The river carries the miners on to Forty Mile 
post, 46 miles away. Nearly a mile from Forty 
Mile post is Fort Cudahy. For 170 miles more 
the way is barren, and then Circle City ap- 
pears. 

A year ago Circle City had a population of 



78 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

800 people, but now it has many more. It is 
898 miles from Juneau and is the first place 
where provisions may be obtained at anything 
but prohibitory prices. 

After leaving Circle City 150 miles more must 
be traveled before the Klondike is reached. At 
the point where the Klondike river meets the 
Yukon the new city, Dawson, has sprung up 
with its thousands of inhabitants. Dawson is 
the metropolis of the Klondike. 

A reliable and intelligent traveller thus de- 
scribes in plain language his journey from 
Juneau to the gold fields: 

' ' Our party consisted of nine. Taking the 
mail, which was put into three knapsacks' 
pouches, we went on board the small steamer 
Eustler, and left Juneau the evening of June 
11. The boat was built to carry twenty-five 
persons, but had on board eighty, and there 
was hardly room to move about. The way 
from Juneau is up the Lynn Canal, amidst 
scenery of great beauty. The run should take 
about twelve hours, but one of the storms for 
which the Lynn Canal is famous burst, and we 
had to anchor. The following day we reached 
Talya. The fare was $10 each. June 14 we 




Ph 

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80 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

set out for Sheep Camp, twelve miles distant. 
All our provisions were packed in oilskin bags, 
and the march into the interior began. As 
traveling was warm, we left Sheep Camp at 
night. There were twenty Indians carrying 
packs. Some of the men carried as much as 
175 pounds. Even the squaws assisted in the 
labor, one walking beside me with a cooking 
stove on her shoulders. 

* ' Soon after midnight we reached the last 
and hardest climb of the pass, and at 2 a. m. 
the summit was reached. We rested a while 
and began to descent to Lake Linderman, which 
we reached soon after noon. Here our boats 
were made. The next day we set sail on the 
lake, about six miles in length. It connects 
with Lake Bennett. There is a dangerous 
place near the lower edge of the lake, and we 
made a portage and carried our provisions about 
fifty yards along the bank. We camped on the 
shore of Lake Bennett, and here our mosquito 
affliction began and no respite was had from it 
until cold weather. 

' ' The next day we started down Lake Ben- 
nett, which is twenty-four miles in length. 
Sometimes the wind rushed with such fury 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 81 

through the gaps in the mountains that the 
boat could not be moved. The gusts of wind 
delayed our trip on this small lake nearly four 
days, compelling us to camp on the shore to 
avoid being swamped. 

^'June 25 the wind ceased, after blowing a 
tornado, and at 2 a. m. we resumed the journey 
to the end of Lake Bennett. This point is 
Cariboo Crossing, a shallow stream two miles 
long. After breakfast we again set out, being 
anxious to get past a part of Tagish Lake, 
known as ^ Windy Arm,' the most difficult and 
dangerous spob in the lake portion of the 
journey. Navigation in these waters, which 
are so remote and unknown on the maps, is 
very difficult. We rowed steadily for nine- 
teen hours to traverse the length of Tagish 
Lake, nineteen miles. We camped near the 
huts known as the ' Tagish Houses, ' the only 
human habitations in this desolate lake country. 
Our tent was infested by the most ferocious 
mosquitoes, and our misery can not be de- 
scribed. 

^ ^ The next morning we started down Lake 
Marsh, rowing. Swarms of mosquitoes fol- 
lowed. This lake also is nineteen miles long. 



82 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

and very shallow. We rowed all day, reach- 
ing the outlet at 6 o'clock. Here the current 
was swift, and we were able to ship our oars 
and fight mosquitoes as we drifted down stream. 
We camped at 10 o'clock. 

''The next morning we continued our trip 
through steep banks. About noon we ap- 
proached the Grand Canyon, being warned 
of it by an increase in the current. About 2 
o'clock we came to a bend, where some one had 
erected a sign marked ' Danger. ' This was the 
stopping place, and we went ashore. One of 
our boats narrowly escaped being washed into 
the rapids at this point. 

' ' On shore we made preparations for run- 
ning the boats through. At this point other 
parties joined us, and there were now five boats 
in the group. We unloaded and carried their 
contents to a quiet eddy below the rapids. One 
skiff, with a guide and with the aid of ropes, 
was then sent through the rapids. It shot into 
the canyon with the speed of an express train, 
and one after another the other boats followed 
in the same manner. 

''Below the canyon is a two-mile stretch 
of bad travel. The landing here must be made 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 83 

in an eddy on the left bank, just above the 
great bend. White Horse Eapids are a half 
mile in length, and greatly dreaded by the 
guides. Every year a number of men are 
drowned at this point. During the last two 
seasons more than twenty unfortunate men on 
their way to the gold fields have lost their lives 
in these wild waters, and their graves dot the 
desolate shores. Within three miles there is 
a fall of thirty-two feet, from which the cur- 
rent's force can be judged. 

''The next morning we began carrying all 
our goods over the portage, a labor doubly 
arduous from the misery caused by the mos- 
quitoes, and the empty boats were guided down 
as before. Having reloaded our boats we 
again set out. From White Horse rapids the 
river is safe and we made a quick run to the 
junction of the Tahkeena river, sixteen miles 
below. 

''The next day we started early and soon 
made the remaining fourteen miles of the river 
and reached Lake Debarge. This is the last 
and largest of the chain, being thirty-one miles 
long and about five miles wide. It is a stormy 
lake, and much dreaded by miners. We be- 



84 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

gan rowing at 1 o'clock and pulled steadily on 
the oars till 11 o'clock at night. There is no 
darkness during summer, and night travel 
presents no extra hardships. We fired at a 
flock of ducks, and the gun made a wonderful 
echo. Immediately more shots answered, and 
it seemed as if peals of artillery were sounded 
up in the mountains. 

'' When nearing the end of the lake a violent 
storm suddenly arose. Our boats were in 
danger, and, although within five miles of the 
outlet, we had to camp until the next after- 
noon, when we resumed the journey, reaching 
the outlet at night. It was no small relief to 
reach the river and leave the lakes behind. 

* ' The river from Lake Debarge is known as 
the Lewis. We continued down the Lewis 
thirty miles, and the next day, July 1, passed 
Big Salmon river. We passed on as far as Little 
Salmon, a distance of seventy-one miles, and 
then camped. The storm on Lake Debarge 
had scattered the party, but we came together 
at this point. 

' ' The next day we traveled sixty-two miles, 
and arrived at Five Fingers. The landing 
must be made in an eddy above the rocks. 



. ■mm'' 







86 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

Six miles below Five Fingers we came to the 
Kock Eapids, the noisest but least dangerous 
in the river. This is the last obstruction, and 
from here down to the sea the Yukon presents 
an unbroken stretch of navigation. Our tor- 
tures from mosquitoes could hardly be borne. 

" The next day we traveled fourteen hours, 
and at 2 o'clock reached the mouth of Pelly 
river. The confluence of the Lewis and Pelly 
forms the Yukon, and is marked by the old 
post of Selkirk, which was raided by the coast 
Indians in 1852. 

''We are now in the vicinity of the gold 
mining camps. Starting down the Yukon the 
following day we made seventy-four miles and 
camped at Eeliance. Formerly there was a 
trading post here, but not a vestige remains. 
On our way we passed Sixty Mile Creek, where 
the first great discoveries were made. The 
next stream we passed was the Klondike, a 
corruption of an Indian word — Tondatt — mean- 
ing salmon stream. The inhabitants were 
anxiously awaiting the coming of the salmon. 

''The next day five hours' pulling brought 
us to the famous mining camp of Forty Mile 
Creek, which was our destination. From the 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 87 

time of our departure from Juneau, June 11, 
to our landing at Forty Mile Creek, July 6, 
we accomplished in twenty-six days a journey 
of 750 miles through a desolate region." 

The all water route to the gold fields is by 
way of St. Michael, and can only be made 
during the three months of summer. This 
route will not be used by prospectors on ac- 
count of its length, but is of vital interest in 
the matter of taking freight and provisions to 
the thousands of inhabitants of the new dig- 
gings. 

Until the recent excitement drew all of the 
prospectors to Dawson, the objective point was 
Circle City. This town was the base of all 
mining operations in the northern region. 
Supplies were brought there from St. Michael 
and in winter the miners made it their head- 
quarters. This was due to two important 
causes. In the first place. Circle City is ac- 
cessible to the flat bottomed steamers that 
make their way up the Yukon river from St. 
Michael. 

The distance from San Francisco to St. 
Michael is 2,850 miles. From St. Michael 
to Circle City the distance is 1,500 miles, and 





TWO ROUTES TO KLONDIKE 



1 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 89 

250 miles down the river toward the mines is 
Forty Mile Post. The Klondike appears at the 
end of fifty miles more. It is this route that 
the steamers take with their supplies for the 
prospectors. 

Parties intending to go to the new gold fields 
should without doubt get the best map of 
Alaska that has been compiled. This map is 
prepared by the United States Coast and Geodetic 
Survey, and is known as Chart T. It is a general 
map embodying cartographic information avail- 
able in regard to Alaska, and is the best pub- 
lished at this writing. The map is obtainable 
by all citizens on application to the Secretary of 
the Treasury at Washington. A small charge is 
made for it by the Government. 

The extraordinary demand for information 
regarding Alaska has caused the Government 
to decide to issue another map of this territory, 
the preparation of which has already begun. 
The new map will be made under the super- 
vision of the Secretary of the Interior and the 
Commissioner of the General Land Office, and 
will be much more comprehensive than any 
previous map of this region. Commissioner 



90 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

Hermann will commence the preparation of 
the map at once. 

The map will show not only Alaska, but the 
adjacent British possessions, with Washington 
and portions of Oregon and California. It will 
give the ports from which passengers desiring 
to reach Alaska can sail, and the routes, and 
will show all the tributaries of the Yukon. 

Commissioner Hermann, in speaking of the 
map, said recently : 

^ ' The map being on a large scale will show 
in an intelligible manner surprising informa- 
tion regarding the vast size of the lower portion 
of the Yukon, which spreads out from 60 to 
100 miles. In this extent it is continuous for 
300 miles inland. 

^ ' It will then be represented as more in the 
form of a river for 2,000 miles further inland, 
reaching into the Forty Mile Eiver and the 
Sixty Mile Eiver district, which embraces the 
site of the gold fields. What will be especially 
interesting will be the minute outlining of the 
land journey from the head of deep water 
navigation in the Lynn Channel across the 
Chilkoot Pass, and showing the various lake 
communications, together with the portages 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 91 

and lake passages. Some very valuable data 
are now in the possession of the office, obtained 
from various sources not opened to the public, 
which will be made public property for the 
first time in official form in this map." 

The Secretary of the Interior and the Com- 
missioner of the General Land Office will unite 
in recommendations to the next session of Con- 
gress for national legislation on many matters 
affecting the welfare of Alaska. An additional 
land district will be designated meanwhile, 
with the site of a new United States land office 
at some point on the Yukon, probably Circle 
City. The President has appointed a resident 
receiver for the eastern land district, with 
offices at Sitka. 

No man has any business to go into the 
Klondike region without an adequate equip- 
ment of money and supplies to carry him 
through for at least a year. At the outset it 
is necessary that he should beware of the thou- 
sand and one schemers and swindlers who will 
beset his path. The regular transportation 
companies of course are the safest to trust in 
the matter of carrying you into Alaska. At 
this writing the latest announcement is the 



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A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 93 

sailing of the steamer '^Portland," which 
leaves Seattle September 10th for Fort Get 
There, St. Michael's Island, Alaska, to make 
connections with the Yukon Eiver steamers 
^^Weare," ^^Cudahy," '^Hamilton," ^^Healy," 
** Power" and *' Klondike." It is promised 
that passengers will be landed at Circle City, 
Fort Cudahy and Klondike gold mines on or 
before June 15th, 1898, the fare, including 
board, being one thousand dollars. The North 
American Transportation and Trading Com- 
pany, with offices in Old Colony Building, 
Chicago, which operates this line, issue letters 
of credit at its posts, Circle City, Alaska, Fort 
Cudahy, Dawson City, Klondike gold fields. 
Northwest Territory, at a charge of one per 
cent. They have also announced that employ- 
ment will be given at remunerative wages 
during the winter (of '97-98) along the Yukon 
Eiver, chopping and banking steamboat wood. 
Large stocks of supplies will be found at Fort 
Get There and Hamilton, on the lower Yukon. 
It would be ill-advised for anyone to believe 
in the low rates for outfits and transportation 
quoted by some of the men who are planning 
to conduct expeditions. A man might better 



94: A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

be destitute at home, in a civilized land, than 
on the inhospitable Alaskan shore, with small 
chance of getting back. By the best estimates 
given by men of experience, it is evident that 
one thousand dollars is the least amount that 
a man should start with from San Francisco 
for Klondike. 

As a somewhat pessimistic view of the ad- 
venturer's chances, it is opportune to quote a 
paragraph from the pen of Ambrose Bierce, in 
the San Francisco Examiner : 

'' The Calif ornian gold-hunter did good by 
accident and crowed to find it fame, but the 
blue-nosed mosquito-slapper of Greater Daw- 
son — what is he for ? Is he going to ' lay 
broad and deep the foundations of an empire ' 
(for Great Britain) in that villain country? 
Will he ' bear the banner of progress ' into 
that paleocrystic waste? Will he ^ clear the 
way' for even a dog- sled civilization and a 
reindeer religion? Nothing will come of him. 
He is a word in the wind, a brother to the 
fog. At the scene of his activity no memory 
of him will remain. The gravel that he thaw- 
ed and sifted will freeze again. In the shanty 
that he builded the she-wolf will rear her 
poddy litter, and from its eaves the moose 
crop the esculent icicle unafraid. The snows 
will close over his trail and all be as before." 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 95 

That the Canadian people realize they have 
a good thing in the Klondike is more than 
emphasized in the expressions of the Dominion 
press. The Toronto Globe is one of a number 
of Canadian newspapers which has given edi- 
torial advice on the subject. Here is a con- 
densation of an article it published at the end 
of July ('97): '^The Yukon district has been 
found to contain fabulous wealth. This wealth 
belongs to the people of the Dominion, and 
that fact must be kept in mind in considering 
plans for administration. * * * Here 
is wealth belonging to the Canadian people 
and apparently waiting to be picked up. If 
the experience of other nations is repeated, 
and people crowd in; scramble for the gold and 
carry it away, it might as well have been lo- 
cated on an island in the Pacific so far as any 
benefit to Canada is concerned. * * * There 
is no reason why a government should not 
make as much out of natural opportunities as 
would a private corporation. 

In 1870 the most exhaustive book on Alaska 
was published by William H. Dall, who visited 
the country as director of the scientific corps of 
the Western Union Telegraph expedition. The 



96 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

purpose in view was to determine whether a 
route through that region was not possibly the 
best for telegraphic communication round the 
world. Exploration since this expedition has 
done little to inform the world about Alaska 
any further, for Dall had able assistants, as 
well as the co operation of specialists in various 
institutes of science and learning in the East- 
ern States, the result being an exhaustive 
compendium of knowledge relating to Alaska 
down to that time. 

A Western journal suggests to those who 
are going from the Pacific slope that they take 
a reserve supply of food in the compressed 
form that the army has experimented with so 
successfully, and provide themselves with 
plenty of clothing and blankets. But above 
all, no one should start for the Klondike who 
is not amply provided with money. It is hardly 
necessary to call attention to the historical ex- 
perience of these rich gold discoveries that 
where there are a few who make fortunes 
there are many more who lose all they have, 
and often their lives. And there are bound to 
be disappointments in Alaska just as there 
were in California, Colorado and Dakota. 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 97 

Samuel Perrin, who is familiar with Alaska, 
makes the following comments, which are per- 
tinent to the subject in hand: 

'^ What causes the tremendous expense in 
the Klondike and other districts in that neigh- 
borhood is the fact that everything must be 
packed over the mountains by men. Mules 
and horses are not known there. The average 
weight that a man can carry is about sixty 
pounds, and everything eatable, excepting fish, 
must be carried in that way. Few people have 
a conception of the extent of Alaska. It is as big 
as all of the United States east of the Mississippi, 
and if a line were drawn north and south the 
center of the United States, that is including 
Alaska, would be 150 miles west of San Fran- 
cisco. In other words, the distance from that 
line to Maine would be 3,000 miles, as from 
the line to the western coast of Alaska. 

''It may be that the wonderful inventive 
geniuses of the day may provide some plan by 
which prospecting may be conducted in Alaska 
during the winter, but I doubt it very much, 
judging from my experience. I am sure that 
the suffering among the people who go there will 
be awful, because of the crude methods of 
transit. There are no such things as stealing 
rides on freight trains, or trips over the coun- 
try in wagons, but it is plain tramp most of 
the distance, and but three months of the year 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 99 

to do it in. It was exceedingly hard to get 
familiar with the climate, and I doubt whether 
men of this section could ever do so. It is 
true I know very little about the Klondike 
gold country, but the temperature and the 
ground itself is the same all over Alaska, very 
wild, mountainous and volcanic. The Indians 
are short and inclined to be peaceful. The 
ground is frozen the year round, and the 
mountains over which they travel covered with 
continuous snow. All of the mining work 
must be done in three months, although there 
have been seasons when they could work in 
May." 

Forty Mile Post, Fort Cudahy and Circle 
City are the principal settlements on the Yu- 
kon. The latter named city was established 
in 1894, and will become the distributing point 
for a large district. The town has several 
stores, restaurants and a good many cabins. 
The season of '97 has advanced too far to allow 
troops to be sent to the Yukon this year, and 
whether they will be assigned there next siun- 
mer will depend largely on the character of the 
reports made by Capt. Eay and Lieut. Eobin- 
son, who sailed from Seattle August 6th, ('97), 
to determine whether it is advisable to estab- 
lish a permanent military post near Circle 
City. 

In view of the great number of American 
citizens who have gone or contemplate going 



100 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

to the Klondike gold fields in Alaska, the Post 
Office Department has made additional con- 
tracts for the carrying of mails to and from 
that region. 

The Department has just been notified by 
the contractor's agent that a party will start 
regularly on the first of each month. The cost 
is about $600 for the round trip. The Chilkoot 
Pass is crossed with the mail by means of In- 
dian carriers. On the previous trips the car- 
riers, after finishing the pass, built their boats, 
but now they have their own to pass the lakes 
and the Lewis Kiver. 

In the winter transportation is carried on 
by means of dog-sleds, and it is hoped that 
under the present contracts there will be no 
stoppage, no matter how low the temperature 
may go. 

Contracts have been made with two steam- 
boat companies for two trips from Seattle to 
St. Michael. When the steamers reach St. 
Michael the mail will be transferred to the flat- 
bottomed boats running up the Yukon as far 
as Circle City. It is believed the boats now 
run further up. 

The contracts for the overland route call for 
only first-class matter, whereas the steamers 
in simamer carry everything, up to five tons, 
each trip. 

Secretary of Agriculture Wilson believes 
that Congress at its next session will authorize 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 101 

the establishment of an agricultural experi- 
mental station in Alaska. He said recently 
that he had no doubt the people in some parts 
of Alaska would be able to produce their own 
vegetables and, to some extent, the cereals 
they will need. 

The hardy classes of animals, he said, also 
could be grown there. The cattle from the 
mountains of Scotland, he believed, could be 
raised successfully in Alaska, but so far as is 
known now the mining regions in the vicinity 
of the head waters of the Yukon Kiver are 
about a thousand miles away from any part of 
Alaska in which agriculture could be success- 
fully pursued. 

Eecognizing the importance of the recent 
gold discoveries in Alaska and adjoining terri- 
tory, and in obedience to the widespread de- 
mand for authentic information in regard 
thereto, the Commissioner of Labor has detailed 
from his regular force an expert, thoroughly 
familiar with all the features of gold mining, 
to proceed immediately to the Klondike for the 
purpose of making a careful and exhaustive 
study of theconditions as they exist. 

It is the intention of the commissioner to 
embody the facts in a special report or bulletin 
of the department, which will appear at as 
early a date as possible. Such a report as 
that contemplated, giving the unbiased facts 
as to the opportimities for the investment of 



102 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

capital and the employment of labor, wages, 
cost of living, etc., he beheves, will be of great 
value to the people of this country. 

Next year there will be telegraph communi- 
cation with the Klondike. Local capitalists 
have filed the articles of incorporation of the 
Alaska Telegraph and Telephone Company. 
The scheme is to run a telegraph line from 
Juneau to Dawson City over the trail by way 
of Chilcoot Pass and down along the shore of 
lakes and rivers. No poles will be used. Both 
telegraph and telephone wires will be laid in- 
side of a big cable, which will rest on the sur- 
face of the ground. From Dawson branches 
will be built to Circle City and Forty Mile. 

An outfit necessary for the long trip to the 
mines is a matter whose importance should 
not be underestimated. The following is a list 
of provisions for one man one month ; 



20 pounds flour. 

1 pound baking powder. 
12 pounds bacon. 

6 pounds beans. 

5 pounds dried fruits. 

3 pounds dessicated vege- 

tables. 

4 pounds butter. 

5 pounds sugar. 

4 cans condensed milk. 



1 pound tea. 

3 pounds coffee. 

2 pounds salt. 

3 pounds oatmeal. 
2 pounds rice. 

5 pounds cornmeal. 
Pepper. 
Matches. 
Mustard. 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 



103 



COOKING UTENSILS AND DISHES 

1 frying pan. 

1 water kettle. 

2 pairs good blankets. 
1 rubber blanket. 
1 bean pot. 

Tent. 
Yukon stove. 



2 plates. 
1 drinking cup. 
1 teapot. 
1 knife and fork. 
1 large and 1 small cooking 
pan. 



1 jack plane. 

1 whip saw. 

1 hand saw. 

1 

1 

1 axe. 



TOOLS FOR BOAT BUILDING. 

1 hatchet. 



rip saw. 
draw knife. 



1 pocket rule. 
6 pounds assorted nails. 
3 pounds oakum. 
5 pounds pitch. 
50 feet ^-rope. 



CLOTHING. 



2 pairs heaviest wool socks. 
1 pair Canadian laragans or 
shoe packs. 

1 pair German socks. 

2 pairs heaviest woolen 

blankets. 
1 oil blanket or canvas. 
1 Mackinaw suit. 



2 pairs heavy overalls. 
2 suits heavy woolen under- 
wear. 
1 pair gum boots (crack- 
proof preferable). 
1 pair snowshoes. 
Heavy cap. 
Fleece-lined mittens. 



2 heavy flannel shirts. 

Take along a supply of medicines and mos- 
quito netting. Also a rifle, gill nets and fish 
lines. Snow glasses are necessary to prevent 
snow blindness. One man should not attempt 
to make the trip alone, and where four or five 
go in one party, one tent, stove, and set of 
tools will do for all. The boats mostly in use 
are the long, double-end bateau, but for a 
party of five or six a scow of good depth will 
be found most convenient. 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 105 

Miners who remain over winter adopt the 
dress of the natives. Water boots are made 
of seal or walrus skins; dry weather, or winter 
boots, from various skins, fur trimmed. Trou- 
sers are made of fawn and marmot skins, 
while the upper garment, combined with a 
hood, called tarka, is made of marmot and 
trimmed with long fur, which helps to protect 
the face of the person wearing it. Flannels 
can be worn under these, and not be any 
heavier than clothing worn in a country with 
zero weather. For bedding woolen blankets 
are used, combined with fur robes. 

Those who go in should be prepared to stay 
a couple of years; the long journey in and out 
takes too much of the good weather. The 
climate is healthful, the summers are pleasant, 
and the winters, while cold, can be made 
agreeable by a plentiful supply of clothing and 
fuel, both of which can be provided. The sun 
shines for twenty hours a day during the sum- 
mer, and during the depth of winter it is dark 
for that many hours, except for the wonderful 
display of the aurora borealis. 

There is sharp business competition at Ju- 
neau and Sitka, and no snaps in commercial 
affairs are in sight. Professional people and 
clerks are not in demand, and mechanics will 
find close competitors in the natives, who are 
very ingenious workmen. Mining men with 
capital, and prospectors who bring a two years' 



106 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 



stake and who can aid in the development of 
the country, are about the only classes to whom 
the field is wide open, and to them Alaska 
offers splendid inducements. 

The route from Seattle, Wash., to Juneau, 
Alaska, is now covered by the vessels of the 
Pacific Coast Steamship Company. From Ju- 
neau the Yukon Transportation Company is 
arranging two separate routes to Circle City, 
the objective point. The freight route, by 
way of the Bering Sea and mouth of the Yu- 
kon is 4,780 miles; the passenger route, by way 
of the Chilkoot Pass and the sources of the 
Yukon is 2,093 — the distances computed from 
Seattle. 

Subjoined is another list for the equipment 
of miners : 



PROVISIONS. 



200 pounds bacon. 

800 pounds flour. 

150 pounds assorted dried 

fruits . 
300 pounds cornmeal. 

50 pounds rice. 

75 pounds coffee, parched. 



40 pounds tea. 
75 pounds sugar. 
150 pounds beans. 

1 case condensed mill^. 
Assortment of evaporated 
vegetables and meats. 



2 suits of corduroy. 

3 pairs rubber boots. 
3 pairs heavy shoes. 

2 dozen heavy woolen 

socks. 
^ dozen woolen mitts. 

3 pairs woolen gloves. 



CLOTHING. 

3 suits heavy underwear. 
2 suits Mackinaw. 

2 hats. 

4 heavy woolen shirts. 
1 heavy coat. 

3 pairs of heavy woolen 
blankets. 



The outfit will cost about $1T5. Transpor- 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. lOT 

tation, via steamer to Klondike, $150, or via 
Juneau and Dyea, 140. If by the latter route, 
the carriage from salt water to Lake Linder- 
man, a distance of thirty-one miles, say one 
and one-half tons, at 15 cents per pound, $450. 
Boat at Lake Linderman, $60; miscellaneous, 
$25; total, $750. 

Conservatively, that is a fair estimate of 
the requirements of a man who expects to re- 
main in the Yukon for eighteen months. There 
are several incidental expenses which might be 
incurred, or the amount of supplies might be 
curtailed to a slight extent. 

These estimates were given by experienced 
miners, who have wintered in the north and 
know what they are talking about. In mak- 
ing purchases, it is well to observe the sugges- 
tion that the very best articles that can be 
purchased are none too good, and will more 
than repay the purchaser in the long run. 

The following list is recommended by Thos. 
Cook, an experienced California miner : 



SUPPLIES. 

SOOpoundsflour f 12 50 

100 " oatmeal 6 00 

100 " beans 2 35 

34 " coffee, at 30 cents T 20 

100 *' bacon, at 14 cents 14 00 



108 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

24 pounds tea, at 50 cents $12 00 

100 " dried potatoes, at 5 cents 5 00 

50 " dried vegetables, at 5 cents 2 50 

100 " dried fruits, at 6 cents 6 00 

25 " (2 cases) condensed milk 2 50 

5 " baking powder 2 50 

5 " salt and pepper 1 00 

50 " canned butter, at 25 cents 12 50 

30 " lard, at 10 cents 3 00 

25 " rice, at 5 cents 1 25 

20 " tools 15 00 

50 " stove and cooking utensils 10 00 

2 " matches and miscellany 1 50 

1,310 pounds. Total supplies $116 80 

OUTFIT. 

Three suits woolen underclothes $12 00 

Three woolen overshirts 6 00 

Two pairs overalls 2 00 

Six pairs woolen stockings 6 00 

Two pairs blankets 16 00 

One foxskin robe 50 00 

One reindeer "parkee," covering head and reaching 

to the knees 12 00 

Three Paris Caribou mittens 6 00 

Two fur caps 8 00 

Two pairs rubber boots 7 00 

Three pairs mocassins 9 00 

One pair " mucklucks " 5 00 

One woolen "Mackinaw," a sort of woolen sweater. 10 00 

Two sweaters (extra thick) 8 00 

Weight, 120 pounds. Total outfit $157 00 

1,310 pounds of supplies 116 80 

Grand total, 1,430 pounds $273 80 

A Woman's Outfit To Take North. 
Here is what a woman who has roughed it 
on the Klondike says a woman actually needs 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 109 

ill the way of an outfit — presupposing, of course, 
that she goes the only way a woman should 
go with a man who takes the necessary camp- 
ing, housekeeping and food outfit. This is 
what she requires for her personal comfort : 

TO TAKE WITH HER. 

One medicine case filled on the advice of a ijood physician. 

Two pairs of extra heavy all-wool blankets. 

One small pillow. 

One fur robe. 

One warm shawl. 

One fur coat, easy fitting. 

Three warm woolen dresses, with comfortable bodices and 
skirts knee length— flannel lined preferable. 

Three pairs of knickers or bloomers to match the dresses. 

Three suits of heavy all-wool underwear. 

Three warm flannel night dresses. 

Four pairs of knitted woolen stockings. 

One pair of rubber boots. 

Three gingham aprons that reach from neck to knees. 

Small roll of flannel for insoles, wrapping the feet, and 
Daudages. 

A sewing kit. 

Such toilet articles as are absolutely necessary, including 
some skin unguent to protect the face from the icy cold. 

Two light blouses or shirt-waists for summer wear. 

One oilskin blanket to wrap her effects in. 

TO BE SECURED AT JUNEAU OR ST. MICHAEL. 

One fur cap. 

Two pairs of fur gloves. 

Two pairs of fur seal mocassins. 

Two pairs of muclucs— wet weather mocassins. 

She wears what she pleases en route to Juneau or St. 
Michael, and when she makes her start for the diggings she 
lays aside her civilized traveling garb, including shoes and 
stays, until she comes out. Instead of carrying the fur 
robe, fur coat and rubber boots along she can get them on 
entering Alaska, but the experienced ones say take them 



110 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

along. The natives make a fur coat with hood attached 
called a ** parki," but it is clumsy for a white woman to wear 
who has been accustomt d to fitted garments. Leggings and 
shoes are not so safe nor desirable as the mocassins. 

A trunk is not the thing to transport baggage in. It is 
much better in a pack, with the oilskin cover well tied on. 

The things to add that are useful but not absolutely nec- 
essary are choice tea, coffee, cocoa and the smaller, lighter 
luxuries of civilization that purse permits and appetite 
craves. It costs just as much for portage on reading matter 
as on the other necessities of life, and consequently after 
making out a list of what you'd like to have, it is wise to cut 
it down to what you can't possibl}'' struggle along without. 

It's astonishing how little people can comfortably get 
along with when they try. 

These nuggets of information are commend- 
ed to all intending visits to the Klondike : 

The only way to live is to imitate the Indians in dress and 
habit. 

_ It is useless to wear leather or gum boots. Good mocas- 
sins are absolutely necessary. 

The colder it is the better the traveling. "When it is very 
cold there is no wind, and the wind is hard to bear. 

Indian guides are necessary to go ahead of the dogs and 
prepare the camp for the night. 

In the summer the sun rises early and sets late, and there 
are only few hours when it is not shining directly on Alaska. 

In the winter the sun shines for a short time only each 
day. 

It is 2,500 miles from San Francisco to St. Michael. 

It is 1,895 miles from St. Michael to Dawson City. 

In summer the weather is warm and tent life is comfort- 
able. 

The winter lasts nine months. 

There are two routes by which to reach Dawson City. 
One by St . Michael Island and the other via Juneau. 

By steamer it costs $150 to go from here to Dawson City. 

Dogs are worth their weight in gold. A good long-haired 
dog sells from $150 to $200. 

Skates might be used to good advantage at times. 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. Ill 

The Yukon River is closed by ice from November to the 
.atter part of May . 

On the Klondike the thermometer goes as low as 60 de- 
grees below zero. 

There is a great variety of berries to be found all through 
the country in summer. 

Game is very scarce. 

Vegetables of the hardier sort can be raised. 

Stock can be kept by using care in providing abundantly 
with feed by ensilage, or curing natural grass hay, and by 
housing them in the winter. 

In summer abundance of fine grass can be found near the 
rivers. 

In appearance the natives are like the North American 
Indians, only more lithe and active, with very small feet 
and hands. 

They live in temporary camps both winter and summer, 
either in the mountains or on the river, according to the 
habits of the game they are hunting . 

Gold was first discovered in the vicinity of Sitka by Frank 
Mahoney, Edward Doyle and William Dunlay in 1873. 

Of the seven trading stations in the Yukon district five are 
located upon the river bank . 

The first American traders to engage in the Yukon trade 
were members of the "Western Union Telegraph expedition. 

With the first breath of spring the up-river people prepare 
for their annual meeting with their friends from the outside 
world. 

Supplies are purchased chiefly in California, and carried 
from here to St. Michael. 

The Yukon is navigable for a 250-ton steamer for a dis- 
tance of 1,600 miles. 

At a distance of 600 miles from the ocean the Yukon River 
is more than a mile wide . 

The Klondike mining region is in the latitude of Iceland 
and lower Greenland. 

The longitude of St . Michael is farther west than that of 
Honolulu. 

It should be stated here that the different 
departments of the United States and Cana- 
dian Governments have prepared a large mass 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 113 

of valuable material, including maps, etc., of 
the Klondike. This information is to be had 
on application, either free or at a nominal 
cost. The remarkable spread of the gold fever 
throughout the country has created such a 
demand for information that both Govern- 
ments have been obliged to order a new supply 
of such of the printed matter and maps as has 
been exhausted by the fierce demand. It may, 
therefore, be some time before the various 
officials will be able to supply the matter called 
for by eager citizens. The Canadian Depart- 
ment has issued a valuable book of information 
regarding the Yukon District from the reports 
of William Ogilvie, the Dominion Land Sur- 
veyor, and from other sources. A few ex- 
cerpts of a practical character from Mr. Ogil- 
vie's report will be useful to those who have 
not his book at hand. Concerning the facili- 
ties for transportation, Mr. Ogilvie says : 

' ' The Alaska Commercial Company aud the North Ameri- 
can Transportation and Trading Company have steamers 
plying between San Francisco, Seattle and St. Michael. At 
the last named place the passengers and freight are trans- 
ferred to stern wheel river boats, and Cudahy is reached 
after ascending the swift current of the Yukon for 1,600 miles. 

The Alaska Commercial Company's steamer Excelsior is 
advertised to leave San Francisco for St. Michael on or about 
June 5th, August 5th and September 5th, connecting with 
the river steamers Alice, Bella and Arctic for all points on 
the Yukon River. , 

The North American Transportation and Trading Com- 
pany's steamers leave San Francisco on June 1st and August 
1st; Seattle on June 10th and August 10th. Fare is f 150 
from Seattle." 




TKAIL MAP — JUNEAU TO DAWSON. 




TRAIL MAP — JUNEAU TO DAWSON. 



116 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

With reference to some of the settlements 
the report says : 

" Sixty Mile Creek is about one hundred miles long, very- 
crooked, with a swift current and many rapids, and is there- 
fore not easy to ascend. 

Miller, Glacier, Gold, Little Gold and Bedrock Creeks are 
all tributaries of Sixty Mile, Some of the richest discoveries 
in gold so far made in the interior since 1894 have been made 
upon these creeks, especially has this been the case upon the 
two first mentioned. There is a claim upon Miller Creek 
owned by Joseph Boudreau from which over $100,000 worth 
of gold is said to have been taken out. 

Freight for the mines is taken up Forty Mile Creek in 
summer for a distance of thirty miles, then portaged across 
to the heads of Miller and Glacier Creeks. In the winter it 
is hauled in by dogs. 

The trip from Cudahy to the post at the mouth of Sixty 
Mile River is made by ascending Forty Mile River a small 
distance, making a short portage to Sixty Mile River and 
running down with its swift current. Coming back on the 
Yukon, nearly the whole of the round trip is made down 
stream. 

Indian Creek enters the Yukon from the east, about thirty 
miles below Sixty Mile. It is reported to be rich in gold, 
but owing to the scarcity of supplies its development has 
been retarded . 

At the mouth of Sixty Mile Creek a townsite of that name 
is located, it is the headquarters for upwards of 100 miners, 
and where they more or less assemble in the winter months. 

Messrs. Harper & Co. have a trading post and a sawmill 
on an island at the mouth of the creek, both of which are in 
charge of Mr. J. Ladue, one of the partners of the firm, and 
who was at one time in the employ of the Alaska Commer- 
cial Company. 

Dawson City is situated at the mouth of the Thron-Diuck, 
and although it was located only a few months ago, it is the 
scene of great activity. Very rich deposits of gold have 
been lately found on Bonanza Creek and other affluents of 
the Thron-Diuck. 

Forty Mile townsite is situated on the south side of the 
Forty Mile River, at its junction with the Yukon. The 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 117 

Alaska Commercial Company has a station here, which was 
for some years in charge of L. N. McQuestion; there are 
also several blacksmith shops, restaurants, billiard halls, 
bakeries, an opera house, and so on. Rather more than half 
a mile below Forty Mile townsite the town of Cudahy was 
founded on the north side of Forty Mile River in the summer 
of 1892. It is named after a well-known member of the 
North American Transportation and Trading Company. In 
population and extent of business the town bears comparison 
with its neighbor across the river. The opposition in trade 
has been the means of very materially reducing the cost of 
supplies and living. The North American Transportation 
and Trading Company has erected a sawmill and some large 
warehouses. Fort Constantine was established here imme- 
diately upon the arrival of the Mounted Police detachment 
in the latter part of July, 1895." 

Mr. Ogilvie states that the Indians are per- 
fectly heartless. They will not render the 
smallest aid to each other without payment, 
much less to a white man. 

In the absence of thermometers in the winter 
time, miners leave their mercury out all night. 
When they find it frozen solid in the morning 
they conclude that it is too cold to work, and 
stay at home. 

With reference to the general character of 
the climate and health conditions, Surgeon E. 
A. Wills, a Canadian official, says in his 
report : 

"The climate is wet. The rainfall last summer was 
heav)^. Although there is almost a continuous sun in sum- 
mer time evaporation is very slow owing to the thick moss, 
which will not conduct the heat, in consequence the ground 
is always swampy. It is ouly after several years of draining 
that ground will become sufficiently dry to allow the frost 
to go out, and then only for a few feet. During the winter 
months the cold is intense, with usually considerable wind. 



118 A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 

A heavy mist rising from open places in the river settles 
down in the valley in calm extreme weather. This damp- 
ness makes the cold to he felt much more, and is conducive 
to rheumatic pains, colds, etc. 

Miners are a very mixed class of people. They represent 
many nationalities, and come from all climates. Their lives 
are certainly not enviable. The regulation ' miner's cabin ' 
is 13 feet by 14 feet, with walls 6 feet and gables 8 feet in 
height. The roof is heavily earthed and the cabin is gener- 
ally very warm. Two, and some times three or four men, 
will occupy a house of this size. The ventilation is usually 
bad. Those miners who do not work their claims dur- 
ing the winter confine themselves in these small huts most 
of the time. 

Very often they become indolent and careless, only eating 
those things which are most easily cooked or prepared. 
During the busy time in summer, when they are 'shovelling 
in, ' they work hard and for long hours, sparing little time 
for eating and much less for cooking. 

This manner of living is quite common amongst beginners, 
and soon leads to debility and sometimes to scurvy. Old 
miners have learned from experience to value health more 
than gold, and they therefore spare no expense in procuring 
the best and most varied outfit of food that can be obtained. 

In a cold climate such as this, where it is impossible to get 
fresh vegetables and fruits, it is most important that the best 
substitutes for these should be provided. Nature helps to 
supply these wants by growing cranberries and other wild 
fruits in abundance, but men in summer are usually too busy 
to avail themselves of these . 

The diseases met with in this country are dyspepsia, 
anaemia, scurvy, caused by improperly cooked food, same- 
ness of diet, overwork, want of fresh vegetables, overheated 
and badly ventilated houses; rheumatism, jDneumonia, bron- 
chitis, enteritis, cystitis, and other acute diseases, from ex- 
posure to wet and cold; debility and chronic diseases, due to 
excesses. Venereal diseases are not uncommon. One case 
of typhoid fever occurred in Forty Mile last fall, probably 
due to drinking water polluted with decayed vegetable 
matter. 

In selecting men to relieve in this country, I beg to submit 



A PRACTICAL CHAPTER. 119 

a few remarks, some of which will be of assistance to the 
medical examiners in making their recommendations. 

Men should be sober, strong and healthy. They should 
be practical men, able to adapt themselves quickly to their 
surroundings. Special care should be taken to see that their 
lungs are sound, that they are free from rheumatism and 
rheumatic tendency, and that their joints, especially knee 
joints, are strong, and have never been weakened by injury, 
synovitis, or other disease. It is also very important to con- 
sider their temperaments. Men should be of cheerful, hope- 
ful dispositions and willing workers. Those of sullen, 
morose natures, although they may be good workers, are 
very apt, as soon as the novelty of the country wears off, to 
become dissatisfied, pessimistic and melancholy." 

Those readers who are desirous of going ex- 
haustively into the subject of Alaska and its 
history cannot do better than to consult, 
among others, the following works on the 
subject : 

Shores and Alps of Alaska H. W. Seton Karr. 

Guide to Yukon Gold Field V. Wilson. 

Papers and Correspondence Relat- 
ing to Russian America Government Publication. 

Report of Military Reconnaissance 
in Alaska, made in 1883 Schwatka. 

Reconnaissance in Alaska, 1885. . . .Allen. 

Population and Resources of Alas- 
ka, 1880 Petroff. 

Report of the Population, Industries 
and Resources of Alaska, 1884. .Petroff. 

Report of the Governors of Alaska, 
1884-'85-'86 

Facts about Alaska (pamphlet) Sheldon Jackson. 

Alaska and Its Resources Wm. H. Dall. 

History of Alaska, 1730-1883 Bancroft. 



THE LAW OF MINING. 
United States and Canada. 

A Synopsis of all L;iws Governing- the Mining of Precious Metals 

"Within the Uiiited States and the Regulations 

Governing Placer Mining "Within 

the Northwest Territories* 

Compiled by a Member of the New York Bar. 

"I stand here for justice and the law." 

— Shakespewre. 

It is one of the purposes of this book to give 
in as succinct a form as possible a resume of 
the mining laws of the United States which 
govern the gold fields of Alaska, and also the 
laws of the Dominion of Canada and the North- 
west Territories. 

A perusal of the Canadian regulations shows 
that no restrictions are put upon American citi- 
zens, but that they may take up claims and 
operate them with the same freedom enjoyed 
by subjects of the Queen. There are certain 
forms that must be observed before ownership 
in claims may be established, which are clearly 
set forth, and the Gold Commissioner, it will 
noted, is invested with extraordinary powers. 

There is no certainty that these regulations 



THE LAW OF MINING. 121 

will not be changed so far as aliens are con- 
cerned. It does not appear at present writing 
that any difference will arise over the boun- 
dary question, as the same seems to be in a fair 
way of settlement, but should any complica- 
tions arise in adjustment of the boundary dis- 
pute it may result in the discrimination of the 
Canadian Government against aliens without 
the violation of any treaty now existing. 

The principle acted upon by most nations is 
that mines are public property and a part of the 
natural domain worked by the state on its own 
account or granted by the state to individuals 
to be worked by them under certain conditions. 
The principle was founded upon the divine 
right of kings to the best. Gold and silver have 
always belonged to the king by virtue of the 
royal prerogative. The territories have no title 
to the unappropriated minerals in the public 
lands. Prior to the Act of Congress of July 
26th, 1866, the United States had not done 
anything which amounted to a dedication to 
the public of the minerals in the public lands. 

Congress prior to 1866 passed some acts re- 
serving mineral lands from sale, but did noth- 
ing else in regard to mineral lands. Until 
July, 1866, it was a trespass to dig or remove 
minerals on the public lands. 

In July, 1866, the general act throwing open 
to exploration and purchase by any citizen of 
the United States or any one who has declared 



THE LAW OF MINING. 123 

who comes within the terms of the law has 
capacity to make a vaHd location, as has also 
a minor. 

The right to mine can be given whether by 
State or federal laws, only in public lands. 
When the lands have become the property of 
an individual the government's right over them 
is gone. 

The Act of 1866 does not designate the char- 
acter of mineral lands which are open to ex- 
ploration; but the Act of 1872 provides that 
they must contain ''valuable mineral deposits," 
but non-mineral lands may be located as mill 
sites either in connection with a lode location 
or separate therefrom. Mineral lands are not 
subject to entry and settlement under the 
homestead acts, nor can title to land known at 
the time to be valuable for its minerals be ob- 
tained under any law except those specially 
pertaining to mineral lands, and locations for 
mining purposes made upon reserved lands are 
void. 

The statute defines a placer to be any form 
of deposit except veins of quartz or other rock 
in place. No placer location can exceed 160 
acres and no one individual can locate more 
than twenty acres. Where a person is in pos- 
session of a placer claim which includes one or 
more lodes or veins he must in his application 
for a patent state that fact, or the lodes will 
be excluded from his patent, provided that they 



124 THE LAW OF MINING. 

are known to exist at the time of such appli- 
cation. If they are not known to exist at the 
time, then the patent for the placer ground will 
convey all the mineral and other deposits within 
the boundaries thereof. If made on surveyed 
lands the location must conform to the United 
States surveys as near as practicable ; but, where 
they caimot be so made, a survey and plat may 
be made as on unsurveyed lands. 

Under the Act of 1866, no single locator could 
claim more than two hundred feet on the same 
vein, except that an additional two hundred 
feet was allowed to the discoverer of the vein, 
nor should a patent issue for more than one 
vein or lode. No association of persons, how- 
ever large, could take up more than three 
thousand feet on any one ledge. 

The Act of May 10th, 1872, changed this by 
providing that no claim located after that date 
should exceed fifteen hundred feet on each side 
of the middle of the vein at the surface. It 
further provided that no mining regulation 
should ever limit the width of the location to 
less than twenty-five feet on each side of the 
middle of the vein. 

The last-mentioned act further provided that 
locators should have the exclusive right of all 
the surface included within the lines of the lo- 
cation, together with all veins throughout their 
entire depth, the top or apex of which should 



THE LAW OF MINING. 125 

lie inside of such surface lines extended verti- 
cally downward. 

The purpose of these acts is not alone to fix 
a certain quantity of surface ground to be al- 
lowed the locator for working purposes, but 
also to protect him in the exclusive possession 
and enjoyment of all veins or ledges which 
have their apexes within his surface lines. 

A valid location of a mining claim can be 
made only when the ground is open to explor- 
ation and appropriation. Discovery and appro- 
priation are the sources of right, and develop- 
ment the condition of continued possession. 
The Act of 1866 allowed the location of any 
vein or lode of quartz or other rock in place 
bearing gold, silver, cinnabar or copper. The 
language of the Act of 1872, as contained in 
the Eevised Statutes, is ''veins or lodes of 
quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, sil- 
ver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper or other valu- 
able deposits. " 

The certificates of location are presumptive 
evidence of discovery, and every reasonable 
presumption should be indulged in in favor of 
the integrity of the locations. 

It is not necessary that the locator shall 
actually be present on the ground. One may 
locate as agent for another, and one may locate 
for himself and others. 

The several states have power to provide by 
law for the location, development and working 



126 THE LAW OF MINING. 

of mines subject only to the paramount effect 
of the federal laws; and the miners themselves 
may make rules and regulations for such pur- 
poses which have the effect of laws so far as 
they are not inconsistent with the laws of the 
United States. 

All that is required by the acts of congress is 
that the location shall be along the vein or lode; 
that it shall be distinctly marked on the ground 
so that its boundaries can be readily traced; 
that the record shall contain such description 
by reference to some natural object or perma- 
nent monument as will identify the claim, and 
that all the lines shall be parallel. All other 
details are left to be governed by the rules and 
regulations of the miners in each district, 
which are valid and effectual if not inconsist- 
ent with the act of congress or any state law. 

The acts of congress do not require that any 
notice shall be posted on the claim, only that 
one shall be recorded. But all rules and regu- 
lations of miners and the statutes of most 
states and territories do require the posting of 
such notice on the ground as well as its record 
in the proper office. The verification of the lo- 
cation notice must state the date of the location 
of the mine. 

While the acts of congress do not expressly 
require a record of a mining location, they pro- 
vide that all records, if such exist or are re- 
quired by any mining regulation, shall contain 



THE LAW OF MINING. 127 

the name or names of the locators, the date of 
the location, and such description of the claim lo- 
cated by reference to some natural object or per- 
manent monument as will identify the claim. As 
has been stated, the mines in each district may 
enact additional requirements. In all mining 
districts they usually do by a meeting called by 
at least six miners, following about the same 
rules as were originally adopted by the Cali- 
fornia miners. The federal laws do not make 
any definite amount of work essential to the 
validity of a location, but under the statutes of 
some of the states and under the mining regu- 
lations of many mining districts a certain 
amount of work must be done before the location 
is complete. 

The statute provides that any one running a 
tunnel for the development of a vein or for the 
discovery of mines shall have the same right 
of possession of all veins or lodes on the line of 
such tunnel within three thousand feet of the face 
thereof which shall be discovered on such 
tunnel, and which were not previously known 
to exist, as if the discovery was made from the 
surface. If other parties shall, while such 
tunnel is being prosecuted with reasonable 
diligence, locate on the line of such tunnel, 
any vein not appearing on the surface, such 
location shall be invalid. A failure for six 
months to prosecute work on the tunnel con- 



128 THE LAW OF MINING. 

stitutes an abandonment of all undiscovered 
veins on the line thereof. 

The question of abandonment is principally 
one of intention, whether the ground was left 
by the locator without any intention of return- 
ing and making a future use of it. Forfeiture 
mean the loss of a previously acquired right to 
mine certain ground, by a failure to perform 
certain acts or observe certain rules, and differs 
from abandonment in that it involves no ques- 
tion of intent. 

A failure to perform the annual work re- 
quired by statute works a forfeiture of the 
mining claim and the same becomes open to 
re-location, unless the original locators, their 
heirs, assigns or legal representatives, resume 
work upon such claim before a re-location has 
been made. 

A failure to comply with local rules or cus- 
toms works a forfeiture, if the local rules so 
provide. 

To suffer tailings to run away, without any 
effort to retain or confine them, constitutes an 
abandonment of them. 

Where the owner of a mining claim has 
failed to comply with the statutory require- 
ments, or the claim is forfeited by reason of 
non-observance of any local rule or custom, the 
same is subject to re-location. 

Any person may then enter peacably upon the 
claim for the purpose of making a location 



THE LAW OF MINING. 129 

thereof, unless the original claimant has re- 
sumed work thereon. 

A re-location is made in the same manner as 
an original location. And the re-locator of an 
abandoned mining claim has the same time to 
perform the acts required by law or custom as 
the original locator had. A re-location is an 
admission of the validity of the original claim, 
and also a claim of forfeiture, as to the original 
locator. 

A party may under proper circumstances re- 
locate his own claim, or that which he holds in 
common with others. 

The statute provides that during each year, 
until a patent issues, not less than one hundred 
dollars of labor shall be performed, or improve- 
ments made, on every claim. But where claims 
are held in common, such expenditure may be 
made on any one claim. If a tunnel is run for 
the purpose of developing a lode or lodes, the 
running of such tunnel shall dispense with the 
necessity of performing work on the surface. 

The period within which the annual work is 
required to be done shall commence on the first 
day of January succeeding the date of the 
location. 

Priority of location confers the better title, 
where both parties rely on possession alone, 
priority of possession gives the better right. 

Where veins intersect or cross each other, 
the prior locator shall be entitled to all ore or 



130 THE LAW OF MINING. 

mineral contained within the space of inter- 
section, the subsequent locator being entitled 
to a right of way through said space where 
two or more veins unite, the oldest location 
takes the vein below the point of union, in- 
cluding all the space of intersection. 

Before the adoption of the Act of 1866, min- 
ing claims upon the public lands were held 
under regulations adopted by the miners 
themselves in different localities. And though 
since 1886, Congress has to some extent legis- 
lated on the subject prescribing the limits of 
location and appropriation and the extent of 
mining ground which one may thus acquire, 
miners are still permitted in their respective 
districts to make rules and regulations not in 
conflict with the laws of the United States, or 
of the state or territory in which the districts 
are situate, governing the location, manner of 
recording, and amount of work necessary to 
acquire and hold possession of a claim. 

That act declared the public lands to be open 
to exploration and occupation, subject to such 
regulations as may be prescribed by law, and 
subject also to the local customs or rules of 
miners in the several mining districts, so far as 
the same may not be in conflict with the laws 
of the United States. 

Section 9, of the same act, also recognizes the 
force of these customs and laws as applied to 
water rights. 



THE LAW OP MINING. 131 

These provisions are continued in force by 
the Act of 1872 and the Eevised Statutes; and 
the latter act contains an additional provision, 
expressly granting to the miners of the re- 
spective mining districts the right to make any 
regulations not in conflict with the laws of the 
United States or the laws of the state or terri- 
tory in which the district is situated, governing 
the location, manner of recording and amount 
of work necessary to hold possession of a mining 
claim. 

Those who have created a mining district 
may change its size or boundaries, if vested 
rights are not affected thereby. 

A mining corporation may be represented at 
meetings in mining districts by any of its 
officers or by any agent. 

One who has made a location in compliance 
with law is entitled, so long as he complies with 
the laws of the United States, and with state, 
territorial and local regulations not in conflict 
therewith, to the exclusive right of possession 
and enjoyment of all the surface included 
within the lines of his location, and all veins, 
lodes and ledges throughout their entire depth, 
the top or apex of which lies inside of such sur- 
face lines extended downward vertically, al- 
though such veins, lodes or ledges may so far 
depart from a perpendicular in their downward 
course as to extend outside the side lines of the 
location ; but such right shall not extend beyond 



132 THE LAW OF MINING. 

the end lines of the location projected in their 
own direction till they intersect the veins or 
ledges. This is the apex riiie. 

Until a patent issues, the fee to mineral lands 
in the public domains remains in the United 
States. But any person coming within the 
provision of the acts of Congress acquires n 
right to purchase them from the governmeiit 
by complying with those acts. 

The applicant for a patent must file an ap- 
plication under oath in the proper land office, 
showing a compliance with the law, together 
with a plat and field notes, made by or under 
direction of the United States surveyor-gen- 
eral, of the claim or claims, and shall post a 
copy of the plat, together with a notice of the 
application, on the land ; he must file an affi- 
davit of the posting of such notice and a copy 
of the notice itself in the land office. The reg- 
ister of the land office shall post the notice in 
his office for sixty days, and shall publish it for 
the same period in the newspaper nearest to 
the claim. 

The claimant must also file with the register 
the surveyor-general's certificate that 1500 
worth of labor has been expended or improve- 
ments made upon the claim by the applicant or 
his grantors. 

At the end of sixty days the applicant shall 
be entitled to a patent upon payment of $5 an 
acre, if the claim is for a lode location, and 



&«:^f*i.;a£re'i>a»fpw6'-r- =»— «^-*i* • 



THE LAW OF MINING. 133 

$2.50 an acre if for a placer location, unless 
during said sixty days an adverse claim shall 
have been filed with the register and receiver 
of the land office in which the application is 
filed ; after which time no objection to the 
issuance of the patent made by third parties 
shall be heard . 

Any adverse claim must be filed within the 
sixty days, and must be under oath of the ad- 
verse claimant. Thereupon proceedings shall 
be stayed until the controversy shall have 
been settled or decided by a court of competent 
jurisdiction. 

The adverse claimant must within thirty 
days after filing his adverse claim commence 
proceedings in a court of competent juris- 
diction to determine his rights and prosecute 
the same with reasonable diligence to find 
judgment, or his claim will be deemed waived . 
The party in whose favor judgment is render- 
ed shall, upon filing a copy of the judgment 
roll with the register, and complying with the 
other provisions for obtaining a patent, be en- 
titled to a patent for the claim or such portion 
thereof as the decision of the court shows him 
entitled to. These sections do not apply where 
a person before the required publication has 
gone through all the regular proceedings re- 
quired to obtain a patent for mineral land and 
has received his patent . 

The transferable character of mining loca- 



134 THE LAW OF MINING. 

tions has been ab^ays recognized by the courts 
and the title of the grantee enforced . It is not 
necessary that the transfer should be in writ- 
ing, as a transfer of the possession is sufficient 
except in those States that have statutes re- 
quiring that the conveyance must have the 
same form and solemnity as the conveyance of 
any other real estate. The patent is also as- 
signable . There is no implied warranty in the 
sale of a mining claim. 

Interpretation. 

Ore — Minerals in natural condition. 

Lode or Vein — A flattened mass of metallic 
or earthy matter differing materially in its 
nature from the rocks or strata in which it 
occurs, a fissure in the earth's crust filled with 
mineral matter, or aggregations of mineral 
matter, containing ores in fissures. The term 
as used in the acts of Congress is applicable to 
any zone or belt of mineralized rock lying 
within boundaries clearly separating it from 
the neighboring rock. The words vein, lode, 
and ledge are nearly synonymous. 

A Mine is a way or passage underground, a 
subterranean duct course or passage, and is 
distinguished from a " quarry," which is a pit 
wrought from the surface. 

Face of Tunnel — This term, as used in sec- 
tion 2323 of the Eevised Statutes, is held to be 
the first working face formed in the tunnel, 



THE LAW OF MINING. 135 

and to signify the point at which the tunnel 
actually enters cover. 

Location and Mining Claim — These terms 
do not always mean the same thing. A min- 
ing claim is a parcel of land containing prec- 
ious metal in its soil or rock. A location is 
the act of appropriating such parcel according 
to certain established rules. But in time the 
location came to be considered among miners 
as synonymous with the mining claim origi- 
nally appropriated. A mining claim may in- 
clude one or several locations. 

Apex — The end or edge of a vein nearest 
the surface. 

Level — The word as used in mining means 
a working and is not necessarily a plane. 

Dip — The direction or inclination towards 
the depth. 

Along the Vein — Along the longitudinal 
course or strike. 

Placer Claim — Ground within defined 
boundaries which contains mineral in its earth, 
sand or gravel; ground that includes valuable 
deposits not in place — that is, not fixed in rock, 
but which are in a loose state, and may in 
most cases be collected by washing or amal- 
gamation without milling. 



136 THE LAW OF MINING. 

Regulations Governing Placer Mining along 

the Yukon River and its Tributaries 

in the Northwest Territories* 

In force August, 189Y. 

Interpretation^ 

" Bar diggings " shall mean any part of a 
river over which the water extends when the 
water is in its flooded state, and which is not 
covered at low water. 

Mines on benches shall be known as ''bench 
diggings " and shall for the purpose of defining 
the size of such claims be excepted from dry 
diggings. 

'' Dry diggings" shall mean any mine over 
which a river never extends. 

"Miner" shall mean a male or female over 
the age of eighteen, but not under that age. 

' ' Claim " shall mean the personal right of 
property in a placer mine or diggings during 
the time for which the grant of such mine or 
diggings is made. 

"Legal post" shall mean a stake standing 
not less than four feet above the ground and 
squared on four sides for at least one foot from 
the top. Both sides so squared shall measure 
at least four inches across the face. It shall 
also mean any stump or tree cut off and 
squared or faced to the above height and size. 




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138 THE LAW OF MINING, 

* ' Close season " shall mean the period of the 
year during which placer mining is generally 
suspended. The period to be fixed by the Gold 
Commissioner in whose district the claim is 
situated. 

^ ' Locality " shall mean the territory along 
a river (tributary of the Yukon River) and its 
affluents. 

*' Mineral" shall include all minerals what- 
soever other than coal. 

Nature and Size of Claims. 

1. ''Bar diggings," a strip of land 100 feet 
wide at high-water mark, and thence extend- 
ing into the river to its lowest water level. 

2. The sides of a claim for bar digging shall 
be two parallel lines run as nearly as possible 
at right angles to the stream and shall be 
narked by four legal posts, one at each end of 
the claim at or about high-water mark, also 
one at each end of the claim at or about the 
edge of the water. One of the posts at high- 
water mark shall be legibly marked with the 
name of the miner and the date upon which 
the claim was staked. 

3. Dry diggings shall be 100 feet square and 
shall have placed at each of its four corners a 
legal post upon one of which shall be legibly 
marked the name of the miner and the date 
upon which the claim was staked. 

4. Creek and river claims shall be 500 feet 



THE LAW OF MINING. 139 

long, measured in the direction of the general 
course of the stream, and shall extend in 
width from base to base of the hill or bench on 
each side, but when the hills or benches are 
less than 100 feet apart, the claim may be 100 
feet in depth. The sides of a claim shall be 
two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at 
right angles to the stream. The sides shall be 
marked with legal posts at or about the edge 
of the water and at the rear boundaries of the 
claim. One of the legal posts at the stream 
shall be legibly marked with the name of the 
miner and the date upon which the claim wa^ 
staked. 

5. A Bench claim shall be 100 feet square, 
and shall have placed at each of its four cor- 
ners a legal post, upon which shall be legibly 
marked the name of the miner, and the date 
upon which the claim was staked. 

6. Entry shall only be granted for alternate 
claims, the other alternate claims being re- 
served for the Crown, to be disposed of at public 
auction, or in such manner as may be decided 
by the Minister of the Interior. 

The penalty for trespassing upon a claim re- 
served for the Crown shall be immediate can- 
cellation by the Gold Commissioner of any 
entry or entries which the person trespassing 
may have obtained, whether by original entry 
or purchase for a mining claim, and the refusal 
by the Gold Commissioner of the acceptance of 



140 THE LAW OF mNING. 

any application which the person trespassing 
may at any time make for a claim. In addi- 
tion to such penalty, the mounted police, upon 
a requisition from the Gold Commissioner to 
that effect, shall take the necessary steps to 
eject the trespasser. 

T. In defining the size of claims they shall 
be measured horizontally, irrespective of in- 
equalities on the surface of the ground. 

8. If any person or persons shall discover a 
new mine, and such discovery shall be estab- 
lished to the satisfaction of the Gold Commis- 
sioner, a creek and river claim Y50 feet in 
length may be granted. 

A new stratum of auriferous earth or gravel 
situated in a locality where the claims are 
abandoned shall for this purpose be deemed a 
new mine, although the same locality shall 
have been previously worked at a different 
level. 

9. The forms of application for a grant for 
placer mining and the grant of the same shall 
be those contained in forms "H" and ''I," in 
the schedule hereto. 

10. A claim shall be recorded with the Gold 
Commissioner in whose district it is situated 
within three days after the location thereof if 
it is located within ten miles of the Commis- 
sioner's office. One extra day shall be allowed 
for making such record for every additional 
ten miles or fraction thereof. 



THE LAW OF MINING. 141 

11. In the event of the absence of the Gold 
Commissioner from his office, entry for a claim 
may be granted by any person whom he may 
appoint to perform his duties in his absence. 

12. Entry shall not be granted for a claim 
which has not been staked by the applicant in 
person in the manner specified in these regula- 
tions. An affidavit that the claim was staked 
out by the applicant shall be embodied in form 
'' H " of the schedule hereto. 

13. An entry fee of $15 shall be charged 
the first year, and an annual fee of $100 for 
each of the following years. This provision 
shall apply to locations for which entries have 
already been granted. 

14. A royalty of ten per cent, on the gold 
mined shall be levied and collected by officers 
to be appointed for the purpose, provided the 
amount so mined and taken from a single 
claim does not exceed ^ve hundred dollars per 
week. In case the amount mined and taken 
from any single claim exceeds five hundred 
dollars per week, there shall be levied and col- 
lected a royalty of ten per cent, upon the 
amount so taken out up to five hundred dollars, 
and upon the excess, or amount taken from 
any single claim over five hundred dollars per 
week, there shall be levied and collected a 
royalty of twenty per cent., such royalty to 
form part of the consolidated Revenue, and to 
be accounted for by the officers who collect the 



142 THE LAW OF MINING. 

same in due course. The time and manner in 
which such royalty shall be collected, and the 
persons who shall collect the same, shall be 
provided for by regulations to be made by the 
Gold Commissioner. 

Default in payment of such royalty, if con- 
tinued for ten days, after notice has been 
posted upon the claim in respect of which it is 
demanded, or in the vicinity of such claim, by 
the Gold Commissioner or his agent, shall be 
followed by cancellation of the claim. Any at- 
tempt to defraud the Crown by withholding 
any part of the revenue thus provided for, by 
making false statements of the amount taken 
out, shall be punished by cancellation of the 
claim in respect of which fraud or false state- 
ments have been committed or made. In re- 
spect of the facts as to such fraud or false 
statements or non-payment of royalty, the de- 
cision of the Gold Commissioner shall be final. 

15. After the recording of a claim the re- 
moval of any post by the holder thereof or by 
any person acting in his behalf for the purpose 
of changing the boundaries of his claim shall 
act as a forfeiture of the claim. 

16. The entry of every holder of a grant for 
placer mining must be renewed and his receipt 
relinquished and replaced every year, the entry 
fee being paid each time. 

lY. No miner shall receive a grant of more 
than one mining claim in the same locality, 



THE LAW OF MINING. 143 

but the same miner may hold any number of 
claims by purchase, and any number of miners 
may unite to work their claims in common 
upon such terms as they may arrange, provided 
such agreement be registered with the Gold 
Commissioner and a fee of five dollars paid for 
each registration. 

18. Any miner or miners may sell, mort- 
gage, or dispose of his or their claims, provided 
such disposal be registered with, and a fee of 
two dollars paid to the Gold Commissioner, 
who shall thereupon give the assignee a certifi- 
cate in form J in the schedule hereto. 

19. Every miner shall, during the continu- 
ance of his grant have the exclusive right of 
entry upon his own claim, for the miner-like 
working thereof, and the construction of a 
residence thereon, and shall be entitled exclu- 
sively to all the proceeds realized therefrom, 
upon which, however, the royalty prescribed by 
clause 14: of these Regulations shall be payable; 
but he shall have no surface rights therein; 
and the Gold Commissioner may grant to the 
holders of adjacent claims such right of entry 
thereon as may be absolutely necessary for the 
working of their claims, upon such terms as 
may to him seem reasonable. He may also 
grant permits to miners to cut timber thereon 
for their own use, upon payment of the dues 
prescribed by the regulations in that behalf. 

20. Every miner shall be entitled to the use 



144 THE LAW OF MINING. 

of SO much of the water naturally flowing 
through or past his claim, and not already law- 
fully appropriated, as shall, in the opinion of 
the Gold Commissioner be necessary for the 
due working thereof; and shall he entitled to 
drain his own claim free of charge. 

21. A claim shall be deemed to be abandoned 
and open to occupation and entry by any per- 
son when the same shall have remained un- 
worked on working days by the grantee thereof 
or by some person on his behalf f oi the space of 
*seventy-two hours, unless sickness or other 
reasonable cause be shown to the satisfaction 
of the Gold Commissioner or imless the grantee 
is absent on leave given by the Commissioner, 
and the Gold Commissioner upon obtaining 
evidence satisfactory to himself, that this pro- 
vision is not being complied with may cancel 
the entry given for a claim. 

22. If the land upon which a claim has been 
located is not the property of the Crown it will 
be necessary for the person who applied for 
entry to furnish proof that he has acquired 
from the owner of the land the surface rights 
before entry can be granted. 

23. If the occupier of the lands has not re- 
ceived a patent therefor, the purchase money 
of the surface rights must be paid to the Crown, 
and a patent of the surface rights will issue to 



*72 hours means 3 consecutive days of 24 hours each. 



THE LAW OF MINING. 146 

the party who acquired the mining rights. The 
money so collected will either be refunded to the 
occupier of the land, when he is entitled to a 
patent therefor, or will be credited to him on 
account of payment for land. 

24. When the party obtaining the mining 
rights to lands cannot make an arrangement 
with the owner or his agent or the occupant 
thereof for the acquisition of the surface rights, 
it shall be lawful for him to give notice to the 
owner or his agent or the occupier to appoint 
an arbitrator to act with another arbitrator 
named by him, in order to award the amount 
of compensation to which the owner or occu- 
pant shall be entitled. The notice mentioned 
in this section shall be according to a form to 
be obtained upon application from the Gold 
Commissioner for the district in which the 
lands in which the lands in question lie, and 
shall, when practicable, be personally served 
on such owner, or his agent if known, or occu- 
pant; and after reasonable efforts have been 
made to effect personal service, without suc- 
cess, then such notice shall be served by leaving 
it at, or sending by registered letter to, the 
last place of abode of the owner, agent or occu- 
pant. Such notice shall be served upon the 
owner, or agent within a period to be fixed by 
the Gold Commissioner before the expiration of 
the time limited in such notice. If the pro- 
prietor refuses or declines to appoint an arbi- 



146 THE LAW OF MINING. 

trator, or ■when, for any other reason, no arbi- 
trator is appointed by the proprietor in the 
time limited therefor in the notice provided for 
by this section, the Gold Commissioner for the 
district in which the lands in question lie, shall, 
on being satisfied by affidavit that such notice 
has come to the knowledge of such owner, 
agent or occupant, or that such owner, agent 
or occupant wilfully evades the service of such 
notice, or cannot be found, and that reasonable 
efforts have been made to effect such service, 
and that the notice was left at the last place of 
abode of such owner, agent or occupant, ap- 
point an arbitrator on his behalf. 

25. (a.) All the arbitrators appointed under 
the authority of these regulations shall be 
sworn before a Justice of the Peace to the 
impartial discharge of the duties assigned to 
them, and they shall forthwith proceed to esti- 
mate the reasonable damages which the owner 
or occupants of such lands, according to their 
several interests therein, shall sustain by reason 
of such prospecting and mining operations. 

(b.) In estimating such damages, the arbi- 
trators shall determine the value of the land 
irrespectively of any enhancement thereof from 
the existence of minerals therein. 

(c.) In case such arbitrators cannot agree, 
they may select a third arbitrator, and when 
the two arbitrators cannot agree upon a third 
arbitrator the Gold Commissioner for the dis- 



fHE LAW OF MINING. 14T 

trict in which the lands in question lie shall 
select such third arbitrator. 

(d.) The award of any two such arbitrators 
made in writing shall be final, and shall be 
filed with the Gold Commissioner for the dis- 
trict in which the lands lie. 

If any cases arise for which no provision is 
made in these regulations, the provisions of the 
regulations governing the disposal of mineral 
lands other than coal lands approved by His 
Excellency the Governor in Council on the 9th 
of November, 1889, shall apply. 

FORM H. 

APPLICATION FOR GRANT FOR PLACER MINING 
AND AFFIDAVIT OF APPLICANT. 

I (or we) of 

hereby apply, under the Dominion Mining Regulations, for 
a grant of a claim for placer mining as defined in the said 
regulations, in (here describe locality) and I (or we) solemnly 
swear : 

1. That I (or we) have discovered therein a deposit of 
(here name the metal or mineral). 

2. That I (or we) am (or are) to the best of my (or our) 
knowledge and belief, the first discoverer (or discoverers) of 
the said deposit; or: 

8. That the said claim was previously granted to (here 
name the last grantee) but has remained unworked by the 
said grantee for not less than 

4. That I (or we) am (or are) unaware that the land is 
other than vacant Dominion land. 

5. That I (or we) did, on the day of 

mark out on the ground, in accordance in every particular 
with the provisions of the mining regulations, for the Yukon 
River and its tributaries, the claim for which I (or we) make 



148 THE Law of mining. 

this application, and that in so doing I (or we) did not en- 
croach on anj- other claim, or mining location previously laid 
out by any other person. 

6. That the said claim contains, as nearly as I (or we) 
could measure or estimate, an area of 

square feet, and that the description (and sketch, if any) of 
this date hereto attached, signed by me (or us), sets (or set) 
forth in detail, to the best of my (or our) knowledge and 
ability, its position, form and dimensions. 

7. That I (or we) make this application in good faith, to 
acquire the claim for the sole purpose of mining, to be prose- 
cuted by myself (or us) or by myself and associates, or by 
my (or our) assigns. 

Sworn before me 1 



at 

this day 

of 18 J 



)■ (Signature) 



No.... 



FORM I. 
qkant for placer mining. 

Department of the Interior, 

Agency, 18 



In consideration of the payment of the fee prescribed by 
Clause 13 of the Mining Regulations for the Yukon River 
and its tributaries, by (A.B.) of , accom- 

panying his (or their; application No. , dated 

, 18 , for a mining claim in (here insert 
description of locality). 

The Minister of the Interior hereby grants to the said 
(A.B.) , for the term 

of one year from the date hereof, the exclusive right of en- 
try upon the claim (here describe in detail the claim granted) 
for the miner-like working thereof and the construction of a 
residence thereon, and the exclusive right to all the pro- 
ceeds realized therefrom, upon which, however, the royalty 
prescribed by Clause 14 of the Regulations shall be paid. 



THE LAW OF MINING. 149 

The said (A.B.) shall 

be entitled to the use of so much of the water naturally flowing 
through or past his (or their) claim, and not already lawfully 
appropriated, as shall be necessary for the due working 
thereof, and to drain his (or their) claim free of charge. 

This grant does not convey to the said 
(A.B.) any surface rights in the said claim, 

or any right of ownership in the soil covered by the said 
claim ; and the said grant shall lapse and be forfeited unless 
the claim is continuously and in good faith worked by the 
said (A.B.) or his (or 

their) associates. 

The rights hereby granted are those laid down in the 
aforesaid mining regulations, and no more, and are subject 
to all the provisions of the said regulations, whether the 
same are expressed herein or not. 

Gold Commissioner. 



FORM J. 

CERTIFICATE OP THE ASSIGNMENT OF A PLACER MINING 

CLAIM. 
No 

Department of the Interior, 

Agency, 18 . 

This is to certify that (B.C.) of 

has (or have) filed an assignment in due form dated 

18 , and accompanied by a registration fee of two 
dollars, of the grant to (A.B.) 

of of the right to mine in {insert description 

of claim) for one year from the 18 . 

This certificate entitles the said (B.C.) 

to all the rights and privileges of the 
said ^ (A.B.) in respect of 

the claim assigned, that is to say, to the exclusive right of 
entry upon the said claim for the miner-like working thereof 
and the construction of a residence thereon, and the exclu- 
sive right to all the proceeds realized therefrom (upon which, 
however, the royalty prescribed by Clause 14 of the Regula- 
tions shall be paid), for the remaining portion of the year for 



150 THE LAW OF MUSING. 

which the said claim was granted, to the said 
(A.B.) , that is to sav, until the 

day of , 18 . 

The said (B.C.) shall 

be entitled to the use of so much of the water naturally flow- 
ing through or past his (or their) claim and not already law- 
fully appropriated, as shall be necessary for the due work- 
ing thereof, and to drain the claim free of charge. 

This grant does not convey to the said 
(B.C.) any surface rights in the said claim, 

or any right of ownership in the soil covered by the said 
claim ; and the said grant shall lapse and be forfeited unless 
the claim is continuously, and in good faith, worked by the 
said (B.C.) or his (or 

their) associates. 

The rights hereby granted are those laid down in the 
Dominion Mining Regulations, and no more, and are subject 
to all the provisions of the said regulations, whether the 
same are expressed herein or not. 

Oold Commissioner. 

N.B. — TTie provisions of these Regulations are liable to be 
changed at any time. Copies of the latest Regulations may be 
obtained by applying to the Department of the InteHoi\ Ottawa, 
Ontario ; or to the Oold Commissioner at Cudahy, Yukon Dis- 
tHct, North- West Teni'itoi'ies. 



Concerning Corporations* 

•. The following will be of interest to mining 
corporations desiring to operate in the Klondike 
region in the Northwest Territory, and persons 
contemplating forming corporation to so operate. 
The Northwest Territories now virtually form 
one of the provinces of the Dominion of Canada. 
It has a legislative assembly, whose powers are 



THE LAYf OF MINING. 151 

defined by the Dominion Act, R. S. C, Cap. 50 
and amendments thereto. 

By the amendments the assembly is em- 
powered to incorporate companies with purely 
territorial objects, except railways, steamship, 
canal, transportation, telegraph, insurance and 
irrigation companies, but including tramway 
and street railway companies. Application for 
the incorporation of companies coming within 
any of the classes thus excepted will therefore 
require to be made to the Dominion govern- 
ment. 

The territorial government incorporates such 
companies as are within the powers of the assem- 
bly by the issue of Letters Patent by the lieu- 
tenant-governor under a general enactment 
known as ''The Companies' Ordinance, " which 
is identical with '' The Companies' Act " of the 
Canadian Parliament, except in the following 
particulars, viz.: 

1. The number of applicants must be at least 
three. 

2. One month's notice must be given in the 
''Territorial Gazette" and in the local news- 
papers published nearest to the chief place of 
business of the company in the territories. 

3. The petition may be presented at any time 
within two months from the last publication of 
the notice. 

4. The number of directors shall not be less 
than three nor more than nine. 



152 THE LAW OV MINING. 

Fees. — The fees payable to the government 
upon grant of Letters Patent, or upon the fihng 
of a foreign corporation of a copy of its charter 
as above mentioned are as follows: 

When capital stock $400,000 and upwards, 
$200; when capital stock $200,000 and under 
$400,000, $150; when capital $100,000 and 
under $200,000, $100; when capital stock 
$50,000 and under $100,000, $50; when capital 
stock $40,000 and under $50,000, $40; when 
capital stock $10,000 and under $40,000, $30; 
when capital stock under $10,000, $20 — in ad- 
dition to advertising charges. 

Foreign Corporations. — The ordinance re- 
ferred to provides that all joint stock companies 
and corporations other than those incorporated 
under it or by the Parliament of Canada, or 
insurance companies licensed thereby, shall, 
before proceeding to do business in the terri- 
tories, file in the office of the lieutenant- 
governor a certified copy of its charter of 
incorporation authenticated as such by its 
president and secretary. Failing in which said 
company shall incur a penalty of $500, to be 
recovered at the suit of the lieutenant-governor 
in any civil court in the territories. 



A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA. 

'• Crystal snow the landscape covers, over all the twilight 
hovers, 
Like a mourner o'er a bier.'* 

— Leon Mead. 

Prior to the year 1741 the peninsula of 
Alaska — the name being an English correction 
of the native Indian word Al-ak-shak, which 
means a great country or continent— was a 
terra incognita to the civilized world. In that 
year, in the month of July, it first burst upon 
the view of the Russian explorer and naviga- 
tor, Chirikof. 

This pioneer in his somewhat crude journal 
describes the natives of Alaska as ' ' well-built 
men resembling the Tartars in feature, not 
corpulent, but healthy, with hardly any beard." 
Of the Chirikof expedition a number of sailors 
who landed on Alaskan territory disappeared, 
and their fate has never definitely been deter- 
mined. Chirikof describes the inhabitants of 
Alaska as he then found them as exceedingly 
timid, and he could by no means induce them 
to board the vessels of his fleet. On his land- 
ing they deserted their settlements and fled on 
the approach of the Eussians. News of the 
Chirikof discoveries in Alaska having reached 
the earsof the Spanish authorities, the govern- 



A SHORT HISTOKY OF ALASKA. 155 

nient of Spain took alarm at the apparently 
important nature of the Eussian explorations. 
In order to neutralize what she evidently con- 
sidered an encroachment on her claimed rights 
to all territory not charted, Spain, through 
her Cabinet, ordered an exploring expedition 
to proceed along the coast to the northward of 
California. 

This expedition, which was under Perez, 
added somewhat to the then slight knowledge 
regarding the Alaskan peninsular. Perez 
sighted and mapped two capes, to which he 
gave the names of Santa Margarita and Santa 
Magdalena. The Perez expedition did not 
land at Santa Margarita, and the observations 
of the Alaskan territory recorded by the leader 
of the expedition were based upon his expeii- 
ence at Santa Magdalena. 

Unquestionably the mapping of the coast by 
Perez was crude and faulty, and it would 
scarcely call forth comment but for the fact 
that some of the members of his expedition 
rescued from the hands of the natives an old 
bayonet and other implements of a civilization of 
which the Alaskans were not supposed to have 
cognizance. The conjecture of the pilot of the 
expedition that these relics were but grewsome 
mementoes of the lost sailors of the Chirikof 
expedition was doubtless well founded. The 
suggestion of cannibalism, which here intrudes 
itself, has no other basis than conjecture. 



156 A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA, 

The Spanish government in 1YT5 dispatched 
a second expedition for the purpose of strength- 
ening her interests there. This important ex- 
pedition was captained by Bruno Hecela. Perez 
sailed with Hecela as pilot, and was second in 
command. The Spanish explorers, on the 2tl:th 
of August, 1775, for the second time landed on 
Alaskan territory and again claimed possession 
under the standard of Spain. 

Three years later the ubiquitous English ex- 
plorer, who stands unique among the navigat- 
ors of the world, Capt. James Cook, passed 
along the coast of Alaska, and signalized the 
event by changing the nomenclature adopted 
by the Spaniards who preceded him. Cook 
gave to Mt. Edgecumbe the name which it 
bears. 

In the following year the English expedition 
returned to Kamchatka under the command of 
Captain Clarke, who had served under Cook's 
command. Clarke proceeded to explore Bering 
Strait with a view to discovering the north- 
east passage to the Atlantic Ocean. The ex- 
pedition reached a point at latitude 70*^ 33' 
when it was obliged to tm*n back because of 
the ice encountered. 

In 1783 an association of Siberian merchants 
founded in Alaska the first colonies of Eussians 
on this continent. At the head of this associ- 
tion were Shellikof and Trangolikof, two of 
the principal shareholders. It encountered 



158 A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA, 

much hostility from the natives and introduced 
many changes in the methods followed in the 
acquisition of furs, then the only industry 
known to that portion of America. The cus- 
tom of trading with the natives for furs gave 
way to harsher and more effective methods on 
the part of the new colonists. The Indians 
were empressed into the service of the Russians, 
who furnished them with hunting parapher- 
nalia and lived in luxurious idleness vrhile the 
subjected race hunted and trapped for them. 

During the year 1786 great progress was 
made in the exj^loration of Alaskan territory. 
In this year Alaska was A^sited by Portlach. 

The cupidity of Spain being again aroused 
by reports of the continual spread of Eussian 
settlement in the far North, the Spanish gov- 
ernment, in 1787, instructed the Viceroy of Mex- 
ico to dispatch an expedition with a view to ex- 
ploring the northwestern coast for the purpose of 
finding if possible desirable locations for settle- 
ment. An expedition was sent from Mexico 
and anchored at Pueilo des Flores, where they 
took possession and remained for a time in 
friendly intercourse with the natives. From 
this point they proceeded to Kaclich, where 
the chief of the colony impressed upon the 
Spanish commander the fact that the Czar had 
firmly established his title to this domain as 
far south as 52^ of latitude. At this time the 
Russians in Alaska were represented by six 



A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA. 159 

settlements colonized by about 400 men, who 
were in control of six vessels. 

Shortly thereafter the Russian empress or- 
dered Jacobi to report on the best means of 
firmly establishing Russian dominion over the 
islands of the Eastern ocean and the northwest 
coast of America, and the best system of gov- 
ernment for the same. In an exhaustive report 
Jacobi, among other things, recommended the 
dispatch of a fleet from the Baltic to protect 
navigation in the Pacific. 

Though constant quarrels between rival 
trading companies constituted a drawback to 
the colonization of the new region, it had thus 
far been attended by a fair amount of success. 

In the year 1783 the Siberian merchants in- 
creased their facilities for operating on a larger 
scale in the new country. They sent to Alaska 
a company of 192 men, which was the largest 
force that had been sent from the Siberian coast 
at any one time. Another party sent to the 
new colony at this time encountered forces of 
hostile natives, and after severe fighting a 
number of them were killed. 

The acquisition of Alaska by the United 
States at the time that it was accomplished was 
not looked upon with favor by the majority of 
our citizens. $7,000,000 seemed to the prac- 
tical American mind a pretty steep sum to pay 
for a group of stationary icebergs in the Arctic 
circle, and Wm. H. Seward, the Secretary of 



160 A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA. 

State, who was mainly responsible for the 
purchase, came in for a large share of abuse 
and ridicule. The experience of after years 
has more than justified the wisdom and fore- 
thought of Seward, for in the light of contem- 
poraneous history, as Bancroft remarks, *' with 
money easy Alaska was not a bad bargain at 
two cents an acre." 

Long prior to its annexation to this country 
Russia had evinced a willingness to part with 
her possessions in Alaska. The territory was 
regarded as too remote, being separated from 
Russia proper by a tempestuous ocean and the 
vast area of Siberia. Exactly when negotia- 
tions for its purchase were first begun is not 
determinable, but it was regarded as a fore- 
gone conclusion at Kadiak in 1861, and the 
question is known to have been mooted at 
Washington in 1 8 5 9 . It was during Buchanan's 
Administration in that year that Senator Gwin 
of California intimated to the Russian Minister 
that the United States would be willing to 
pay $5,000,000 for the territory. This offer 
was not official, nor did the Russians consider 
the sum sufficient. 

The Russian Archduke Constantine in Feb- 
ruary, 1867, conferred upon the Russian Min- 
ister at Washington power to treat for the sale 
of Alaska, and on March 23 of that year Mr. 
Seward made the offer of $7,000,000, subject to 
the approval of the President, with the proviso 




162 A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA. 

that the cession of the territory be ^^free and 
unencumbered by any reservations, privileges, 
franchises, grants or possessions by any asso- 
ciated companies, whether corporate or incor- 
porate." The terms proposed were accepted 
by the Eussian Minister and on March 29, 
final instructions were cabled from St. Peters- 
burg. On Friday, October 18, 1867, Captain 
Pestchourof hauled down the Eussia flag in 
Alaska and briefly and simply transferred the 
territory to the United States, in compliance 
v/ith the terms of the treaty made March 30, 
1B67. 

It is well to state here that as is the case in 
all international negotiations there is a secret 
history attached to the purchase of Alaska by 
Seward. It is well known that the presence 
of the Eussian fleet in American waters at a 
critical period of our civil war had a wholesome 
effect upon the activities of England who was 
at that time not averse to the dismemberment 
of the American Eepublic, and it is assumed 
that Seward in payment for the obligations con- 
ferred upon the United States by Eussia at a 
time when friends were scarce, made the 
purchase of Alaska, which Eussia was anxious 
to sell, at a price which Eussia was willing to 
take. Even if Seward did not foresee the 
glorious possibilities of the newly acquired ter- 
ritory — which Eussia certainly did not — the 
negotiations leading up to and final absorption 



A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA. 163 

of Alaska by the United States will redound 
to his lasting credit as a statesman of the first 
class. 

During ten years succeeding the purchase of 
Alaska but little was done to improve the 
spiritual welfare of the natives, but in 1877 a 
Presbyterian mission was established at Sitka 
and two years later a mission under Catholic 
control made Fort Wrangell its place of settle- 
ment. These missions met with little encour- 
agement or success at first, but formed the 
beginning of the excellent system of educa- 
tion, religious and otherwise, that now obtains 
throughout Alaska. For an exhaustive de- 
scription of the Indians of Alaska the reader is 
referred to the report of Lieut. George F. 
Wilson, U. S. A., who accompanied Schwatka 
in his exploration in 1883. In that year Lieut. 
Wilson give the number and tribes of Alaskan 
Indians as follows: 

After a careful arrangement of the data on the topography 
of the country passed throuirh, with special reference to the 
boundary line between the Territory of Alaska and British 
America, it has been determined tha the main village of one 
tribe, Klat-ol-klin, supposed to be in Alaska, is situated 
within the English possessions ; consequently that tribe will 
not be included in the following summary of the names and 
members of the tribes met with in this portion of the United 
States : 

Tongas, about , , 600 

Cape Fox, about 250 

Stickeens, about 800 

Sitkas, about 1,000 

Hootznahoo, about 700 



164 A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA. 

Hoonahs, about 700 

Auks, about 700 

Cliilkats, about 980 

Tadoosh, about 50 

Fort Yukons, about 100 

Tananahs, about 500 

Ingalik tribes, about 1,350 

Innuit tribes, about 1,900 

Aleuts, about 1,890 

11,520 

Only those Innuits living along the Yukon River within 
the delta and northward along the coast to near the Oonala- 
kleet River are included in this list, and about 400 half 
breeds (Aleut and Russian living on the Aleutian group are 
also excluded.) 

The whole number of natives met with is, therefore, about 
11,530. The tribes met with along the river east of the 
boundary are : 

Tahkeesh 50 

Ayans 200 

Takons 100 

Klatolklins 100 

Concerning the last named tribe it may be stated that their 
village is but a short distance from the boundary line as 
determined, and that the trading station about a mile further 
down the river, and now abandoned, is within the Territory 
of Alaska. 

When Alaska was annexed the population 
was stated by the Eussian missionaries at 
33,426, of whom but 430 were whites. The 
mixed race — termed Creoles — counted 1,756 
and were the practical leaders, using the In- 
dian tribes for hunting and fishing. Fur trade 
and the fisheries were at that time the only- 
known resources. As early as 1880, however, 
the sea otters shipped represented a value of 



A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA. 1(55 

>,000, the fur seals over $1,000,000, the 
land furs $80,000, and the fisheries from $12,- 
000 to $15,000. 

Mineral riches were hinted at by the early 
explorers. In 1885 the Director of the Mint 
credited Alaska with $300,000 in gold and 
$2,000 in silver, the chief contributor being 
the Alaska mill at Douglass City. In 1896 
the gold product reached $1,948,900, showing 
a gain over 1895 equal to $386,100. For 1897 
the gold output is placed by good judges at not 
less than $10,000,000. 

Prior to the discovery of gold in large quan- 
tities, Alaska was important principally on ac- 
count of the seal fisheries, concerning which im- 
portant and interesting industry hundreds of 
volumes have been written both in the way or 
diplomatic correspondence and otherwise. 

The Alaskan fur seal fishing is the most ex- 
tensive in the world. Since Alaska became 
the property of the United States this fishery 
has afforded a very considerable revenue to the 
Government by the lease of its privileges and 
engaged a large amount of American capital 
and the industry of many American people. 
For sixty years prior to 1862 these fisheries 
had been leased by the Russian Government to 
the Russian American Company, a corporation 
composed mainly of Siberian merchants. In 
1870 the the Alaska Commercial Company ob- 
tained its lease, expiring May 1, 1890. At the 



A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA. 167 

expiration of its term, the North American 
Commercial Company succeeded in obtaining 
the lease from the government for the ensuing 
twenty years. 

Next in importance to the fur industry of 
Alaska comes that of the fisheries. The In- 
dians of that country subsist principally upon 
seal meat and fish. The Alaskan rivers and 
streams produce a variety of edible fish of 
which the salmon is king, and after the exhaus- 
tion of the Columbia Eiver the canning of this 
noble fish in Alaska received a great impetus. 

In 1883 the salmon of Alaska were first 
canned and in that year 6,000 cases were 
marketed. In 1890 the enormous total was 
610,717 cases. In the seven years from 1883 
to 1890 this would have meant a consumption 
of 27,706,958 salmon. 

Eegarding the boundary line between Alaska 
and the North-west Territory the New York 
Sun holds that any statement that there are 
grounds for a dispute is untenable. In an able 
editorial on the subject it says in part: 

"The treaty of February 28, 182>, between Russia and Great 
Britain, under which our rights to Alaska are derived by 
purchase from the former, says that the boundary line, be- 
ginning at the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island, 
ascends to the north along Portland Channel as far as the 
point of the continent where it strikes the tlfty-sixth degree 
of north latitude. Thence it is to "follow the summit of 
the mountains situated parallel to the coast as far as the po/nt 
of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude," thence 
proceeding along that meridian to the Frozen. Ocean. It is 



168 A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA. 

further provided that whenever the summit of these moun- 
tains proves to be more than ten marine leagues from the 
ocean, the line "shall be formed by a line parallel to the 
•winding of the coast, which shall never exceed the distance 
of ten marine leagues therefrom." 

It turned out that the continuous range of mountains 
parallel to the coast, depicted on Vancouver's map, which 
was used by the framers of the treaty, was imaginary. 
Hence the alternative provision of a distance of thirty 
marine miles from the coast necessarily was adopted for 
determining the boundary; and the line thus drawu, the line 
we still have for Alaska, is found on British maps as well as 
ours for a period of nearly or quite sixty years after the 
signing of the treaty." 

The introduction of reindeer into Alaska, 
for which credit is due to Dr. Sheldon Jackson, 
bids fair to prove invaluable in view of the 
enormous influx of miners to the Yukon region. 
In 1893 Congress made an appropriation for 
the purpose and a small herd was introduced 
into the territory from Siberia. In 1894 the 
herd was increased by new importations, since 
which time the natural increase has been satis- 
factory. The herd now numbers 1000 and the 
future of this useful anim.al is assured. The 
value of the reindeer to the Alaskan miner is 
sure to prove as great as it is to the Laplander, 
to whom it is invaluable, being, in fact, his 
horse, his ox, and his sheep in one animal. As 
a draught animal its speed, endurance, and par- 
ticular adaptation to travelling on snow render 
it most valuable to people dwelling in the frozen 
latitudes. It has been known to run at the rate 
of nearly nineteen miles an hour, and it is not 



A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA. 169 

unusual for it to travel 150 miles in nineteen 
hours. The weight ordinarily drawn by it in 
Lapland is 240 pounds, but it can draw 300. 
Its meat forms delicious food for man; its skin 
is valuable, and the milk of the herds is often 
the principal support of the owner and his 
family. Milhons of them could exist in Alaska 
upon the reindeer moss which exists there in 
the greatest abundance. 

Alaska is a country which embraces a vast 
territory. The main land is estimated to con- 
tain an area of 580,000 square miles, vfhile the 
island of the Alexandrian archipelago contain 
31,200 square miles and the Aleutian island 
6,400 square miles, a grand total of 617,600 
square miles. The main land has an extent, 
north and south, of over 1,000 miles, while 
Altu, the last island of the Aleutian group, is 
2,000 miles west of Sitka. 

A range of high mountains covered with 
snow and seamed with glaciers which push 
their feet into salt water, runs parallel with 
the coast, and divides the country into two 
unequal parts — the narrow coast strip, with 
islands and a moist climate, where zero 
weather is rare, and the vast interior, where 
the thermometer has a range of 180 degrees. 

The coast region is accessible at all seasons 
by ocean vessels. 

Alaska has already paid for itself by royalities 
from the fur sealing company, not to speak of 



A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA. I7l 

the salmon industry which has yielded more 
than the purchase price, while the Treadwell 
gold mill on Douglass island has given to the 
world in gold more than the original cost of 
tlie country. 

Juneau, the metropolis of Alaska, was 
founded in 1880, and named in honor of 
Joseph Juneau, who first found gold on 
Douglass Island, two miles away, where the 
famous Treadwell quartz mill, the largest in 
the world, is located. Sitka is the capital. 



The great interior of Alaska is accessible less 
than half of the year, and then with much 
difficulty and hardship. The mighty basin of 
the Yukon, which comprises two-thirds of the 
entire territory, is one of the most remarkable 
regions in the world. Were it not for this 
great artery the world would know nothing of 
the wealth of the interior. The Yukon is 
formed by the junction of the Pelly and Lewis 
rivers, the former 600 miles long and the latter 
360. From Fort Selkirk, at the confluence of 
the rivers, to the mouth of the Yukon, the 
distance is 2, 044 miles, and the way is navigable 
for flat-bottom steamers of 400 or 500 tons. 

From Fort Selkirk the Yukon flows 400 
miles northwest, touching the Arctic circle, 
and then southwest for 1,600 miles, toBehring 
sea. It is sixty miles wide at its mouth, and 



172 A SHORT HISTORY OF ALASKA. 

SO shallow that ocean vessels cannot enter. 
Along its banks flowers bloom in the summer 
and birds sing in the trees, but in September 
the frost comes, and soon the whole countrv 
is covered with snow, the rivers become ice, 
and the thermometer drops to sixty and eighty 
below zero. Fossils of the m-ammoth and other 
gigantic animals are found along the Yukon. 
The navigable tributaries of the Yukon are 
the Lewis, Pelly, Stewart, Tahkenna, Hoota- 
linqua. Porcupine, Tannana, Anvik, White, 
Birch, Salmon and others, to the extent of 
several thousand miles. 



FAMOUS GOLD RUSHES. 

"They told us of the heaps of dust, 

And the lumps so mighty big ; 
But they never said a single word 

How hard it was to dig." 

—Ballads of California. 

The finding of gold dust or nuggets, or 
quartz in the bowels of the earth or in the beds 
of streams is of little direct benefit to the world 
at large. Iron or copper or tin are metals 
more useful and add a great deal more to the 
comfort of man. The possession of gold is 
valuable in that it gives to individuals the 
power to command a larger share of the world's 
goods, and the finding of gold in the earth has 
a tendency to equalize the conditions of rich 
and poor. The benefits conferred upon a com- 
munity by a gold rush are purely local. It 
tends to produce a demand for those things that 
a community produces and hence creates local 
prosperity. The real addition to the wealth of 
the world comes later when in the wake of a 
gold rush the natural industries of a country 
are developed, such as its agriculture and hor- 
ticultui'e, which add materially to the real 
comfort of mankind. The development of coal 
seams and of copper mines and chose of other 
useful metals is also a useful outcome, gener- 



174: FAMOUS GOLD RUSHES. 

ally, of a gold rush. Perhaps the most re- 
markable outgrowth of such a rush is its in- 
fluence on human character. Men who are 
tried in the crucible of hardship generally 
m.ake good citizens and form excellent material 
for the building up of new communities. Alaska 
and the great basin of the Yukon cannot fail 
to be benefited by the influx of good men of 
brawn and brain who, as has always been the 
case, will far outnumber the vicious and worth- 
less. 

The Argonauts of ^49. 

Nearly half a century has elapsed since the 
world was startled by the report of the discov- 
eries of fabulous wealth in the then remote 
land of California. The existence of gold in 
Lower California had, three hundred years be- 
fore, been known to Cortez in Mexico, who, in 
1537, fitted out an expedition which returned 
from the peninsula with a small quantity of 
the precious metal. The experience of Cortez, 
however, had no effect upon the eager "49er," 
as historical research is rarely a concomitant 
of gold rushes. Many California pioneers are 
still alive and every one of them will maintain 
that with energy the difficulties confront- 
ing the miner on the Yukon are mere child's 
play compared to what they had to undergo in 
wresting fortune from the El Dorado of fifty 
years ago. The argonauts of '-iO had to cross 



FAMOUS GOLD RUSHES. 1^5 

severe ranges of mountains covered with snow 
and ice; they had to endure the blazing heat 
of the tropics and the horrors of chagres 
fever; they had to confront deserts and alkah 
plains. Savage beasts and more savage men 
beset their steps as they wended their way 
across a trackless country or the then deadly 
isthmus of Panama. Mule trains or prairie 
schooners were the means of locomotion for 
their necessaries, while they trudged wearily 
on foot. They had in those days no tinned 
meats, condensed milks or preserved fruits, no 
neatly compounded medicines in portable form. 
In order to have a letter delivered to their dear 
ones at home it was necessary to pay in some 
cases as high as $5, with the certainty that it 
would be many months before a reply was pos- 
sible. An old miner thus describes a part of 
the journey to California: 

" Our trail was littered with the remains of other cara- 
vans of pioneers who had proceded us across the deadly 
waste. The skeletons of men and animals dotted both sides 
of the trail, and wagon wheels, old arms, rusty swords, 
broken rifles and other relics of the victims of that terrible 
summer were lying around in profusion. The value of the 
material that lay there decaying on the desert would, I be- 
lieve, if fairly computed, run up into the hundreds of thou- 
sands of dollars." 

The gold rush to California has often been 
told in song and story, but the proposition that 
the State shall celebrate in January, 1898, the 
fiftieth anniversary of the finding of gold in 
the flume of General Sutter's saw mill at Co- 



176 FAMOUS GOLD RUSHES. 

loma, in El Dorado County, has brought to 
light a mass of material concerning the days 
of forty-nine, among which is the true story 
of the great discovery. 

James W. Marshall, the discoverer of gold in 
California, died at Coloma in 1885. Those 
who were associated with him in the great find, 
including General Sutter, are nearly all dead. 
There is one survivor, however, of those who 
were on the ground — Adam Wicks, of Santa 
Barbara. Wick's story, much condensed, is 
herewith given: 

"I reached the Sutter's Fort or stockade in the fall of 1847. 
There were about forty white men in Sacramento at that 
time, most of whom were employed by Sutter, then a man 
of forty-tive j^ears, with a wonderful belief in the possibili- 
ties of California soil for raising fruits and grains. Sutter 
employed me to oversee a squad of half-breed Indians who 
were employed in rounding up cattle. At that time Sutter 
was improving his saw mill, believing that the government 
would need a large supply of lumber. At meal times at the 
camp cook house I often met and became friendly with Mar- 
shall. He was a carpenter from New Jersey and had been a 
rover for many years. At the time that I knew him he had 
been with Sutter four yeais, and was anxious to again wander 
forth and try his fortunes elsewhere. Three weeks later he 
picked up the first golden nugget, and the future of California 
was assured. I was away on the day that the find was made 
and on returning to the ranch asked Marshall about it. Mar- 
shall went into the kitchen of the building and came 
back with a tin matchbox. He lit the candle and slowly 
and silently opened the box. I watched him intently. He 
produced from the box four bits of gold. 

" 'Now, by , what do you call that? ' said he, as he 

laid them on the redwood table before me. The largest 
nugget was the size of a hickory nut ; the others were the 
size of black beans. All had been hammered and were very 



FAMOUS GOLD RUSBnES. ITT 

bright from boiling and ncid tests. Those were the first evi- 
denct s of the gold. 

"Two weeks later Mrs. Wimmer, the cook, went to Sacra- 
mento, where she siiowed some nuggets found along the 
American River, and thus the nev/s was spread, Marshall and 
the rest of us were extremely mad at the time with the cook, 
and rhavG heard that Marshall never forgave her. Then the 
rush began. Sutter lost a magnilicent estate by the finding of 
gold on bis property and lived for years on a pension allowed 
bun by the State. 

*By July, 1848, the excitement over Marshall's discovery 
became widcGpror.d. Every vessel that toucned at San Fran- 
cisco v/as dcsciied almost to a man by the crew, who went 
up the river to Sacramento, and then came pell mell seventy 
iailes across the country to the American River. Clergy- 
men, merchants, lawyers and laborers started for the dig- 
gings. Prices of everthing had gone up fabulously. Cattle 
were worth $12 a head in 1847, $150 in the summer of 1848, 
and over $400 in 1849 and 1850. Shovels, hoes, dishpans 
(used for washing the gold) were sold for almost their weight 
in gold at times between the arrival of steamers bringing a 
f esh supply of these things. I bought a pair of boots" in 
1317 for ^13, and, after I had worn them well, I sold them 
i'l July, 1848, at the diggings for four ounces of gold, worth 
then $14 an ounce. Why, there were no men left to keep 
stores. Every one went to mining. 

"Along in March and April, 1849, the stampede of gold- 
hungry men began from the East. You see it had taken two 
months for the nev/s to get down to San Francisco ; then two 
months more for it to get to New York, and six months for 
the Easterners to put much faith in the rosy stories of how 
easy one could dig and hoe up gold in California. The stor- 
ies never lost anything in traveling to the Essteru States, and 
when they continued to come from the coast by every mail 
across the Isthmus, the whole East became excited. One of 
the conservative newspapers in New York estimated the 
earnings of a miner who employed Indians to shake the pan 
or handle the rocker for him at a dollar a minute. These 
stories were half confirmed by the numerous army otiicers 
stationed in California. Horace Greeley indorsed them in 
the THhune, predicting an addition of a thousand millions of 
gold to the world's stock in four years, and adding that in 



Its FAMOUS GOLD RUSHES. 

New York * bakers cannot supply the demand for ship bread 
nor hardware men the demand for rifles, pistols, bowie 
knives and shovels.' During that winter of 1848-49 whole 
fleets of sailing ships set out from New York, Boston, Phil- 
adelphia, Norfolk, Baltimore, New Orleans and Charleston 
for the land of gold. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company 
was established in November, 1848, and three steamers 
were built forthwith. In the spring of 1849 20,000 persons- 
men, women and children — were preparing at Independence, 
Mo., for the overland journey of 2,000 miles across the 
plains, and 10,000 people were waiting at San Francisco for 
transportation to the mines. 

•'All that you have ever read about the excitement that 
attended the influx of tens of thousands of Americans into 
California in 1849 and 1850 was not exaggerated. No one 
has any idea, until he has seen it, what privations and suffer- 
in» men will endure where they are wild to get earliest in a 
gold field. I often wonder now if my recollections of those 
days are real or merely dreams . It all seems so unreal now . 

"Marshall's troubles began with the very first stampede of 
gold seekers. He cm-sed Mrs. Wimmer and he declared he 
would have the law protect his rights. While the rest of us 
joined in digging and washing gold, Marshall swore and 
growled. For a few months he made every man on the 
scene pay him a dollar for his discovery. But when the 
throngs increased he seldom got a dollar, and then only from 
a good-natured man. He claimed that he and Sutter owned 
the land on which the miners came and got their gold. Of 
course there was justice in the assertion that the miners had 
trespassed upon Sutter's and Marshall's acres, but the law- 
less, wild gold seekers cared precious little for legal rights in 
those days, and there was neither United States nor Mexican 
law in California from some time in 1847 until the summer 
of 1850, when the Territory began to get ready for admission 
as a State. Marshall became disliked for his belligerency, 
and he was in continual disputes and quarrelling. Several 
times he barely escaped serious physical punishment from a 
camp of reckless, intoxicated miners whom he had threat- 
ened with legal processes because of their encroachments on 
his land. He never did any mining himself, for he claimed 
he owned all the gold that had been taken out at Coloma, 



FAMOUS GOLD RUSHES. 179 

and he would some day have the courts give him back all 
the riches that had been stolen from him. 

"He was a spiritualist, and had visions and messages 
from the spirit land that told him what to do. He went 
often to 'Frisco and Sacramento. By 1851 he became recon- 
ciled to his fate, and abandoned all claims to the mining 
property on his lauds. In 1857, he bought a plot of land at 
Coloraa, near the site of his saw mill. There he planted a 
vineyard. He did odd jobs about the town and made wine. 
He became a hard drinker and everyone knew him as a 
chronic growler. In 1869 he started out to lectare on ' How 
I Found Gold in California.' He was very poor, and for a 
few nights he did a good business. Then he went to Stock- 
ton, and there his love for whiskey overcame him, and he 
fell by the way. In 1873 the Legislature of California 
granted him a pension of $200 a month for two years. It 
was subsequently renewed for seven years at $100 a month. 
He spent almost every dollar of it all in saloons, and on a lot 
of parasites. That was why the first pension was cut down 
one-half. He died alone in a ramshackle, desolate cabin in 
the little hamlet of Kelsey, in El Dorado county, on August 
9, 1885. He had been dead a day before his remains were 
found." 

The Rush to Australia^ 

The frantic pilgrimage of gold seekers 
to Australia in 1851 constituted a "rush" 
second in importance in the history of such 
events. The remarkable scenes and incidents 
of the days of '49 in California were repeated, 
and thousands of eager adventurers fell by the 
wayside, leaving their bones to whiten, mingled 
with those of the Dingo and kangaroo, upon 
the forbidding deserts of inland Australia. 

The first discovery of the precious metal is 
attributed to a Mr. Hargraves, at Bathurst, 
in April, 1851. In August of the same year 



180 FAMOUS GOLD RUSHES. 

the rich finds at Balarat were unearthed and 
before the year v/as out the phenomenal treas- 
ure bed concealed in Mount Alexander revealed 
its wonders to the world. 

As was the case in California all other indus- 
tries were neglected. Stockwhips and shep- 
ards crooks were thrown aside for the pickaxe 
and the shovel. Eanches were neglected and 
fell to ruin. During the excitment in Victoria 
the rush to the diggings became a stampede 
and the young and handsome cities of Mel- 
bourne and Geelong were practically deserted. 

From that time to the present new and phe- 
nomenal finds of gold have been unearthed in 
the various colonies of Australia, New Zealand 
and Tasmania, and " rushes" similar in char- 
acter, though smaller in degree, have been again 
and again repeated. 

The rush to the Coolgardie district in West 
Australia, with its terrible record of hardship 
and death, is fresh in the public mind. 

Notwithstanding the enormous amount of 
gold yielded by Australia since its discovery in 
1851, an enormous area of mineral country is 
still unprospected and new discoveries in the 
near future are not improbable. 

Other Rushes* 

In the history of gold production, California 
and Australia stand preeminent, but man has 
scoured the earth to quench his lust for gold, 



FAMOUS GOLD RUSHES. 181 

and history is rich with the record of his 
efforts. 

The gold fields of Africa have at various 
times created a furore of excitement which 
has spread itself over the world. From the 
rush to Leydenberg in 1872, the great discov- 
eries in the Transvaal in 1886, and those of 
Witwaterand in the same year down to the 
famous "Kaffirs" of Barney Barnato, which set 
Europe on fire, there is seen the great impor- 
tance of the gold fields of Africa. Through 
them the Transvaal has been transformed and 
the prosperous town of Johannesburg, started 
in 1887, has become a thriving and important 
city. 

The rush to Caribou and the Frazer river, of 
British Columbia, where gold was discovered 
in 1858, was characterized by the same feat- 
ures as those of its predecessors. 

In the United States the stampede of gold 
seekers to Nevada, to Leadville, Cripple Creek 
and Crede in Colorado; to Deadwood and the 
mines of Idaho with all its picturesque and re- 
markable features, is fresh in the public mind. 
There are but few states in the Union where 
gold does not exist in some degree, and each 
one of them has experienced its miniature 
rush. 

In addition to the gold fields enumerated im- 
portant discoveries of gold accompanied by the 
usual stampede have occurred in Brazil, Mex- 



1S2 FAMOUS GOLD RUSHES. 

ico, Peru, Eussia, Austria- Hungary, Germany, 
Chili and even in England, where the recent 
discovery of gold on Mr. Morgan's estate in 
Wales has given use to parlimentary en- 
quiry and the establishment of new laws. 

Of all the gold discoveries that have occurred 
in recent years, that in the basin of the Yukon 
river, within the fastnesses of Alaska and the 
North- West Territory has apparently taken 
the strongest hold upon the public mind and 
at the present writing there seems to be little 
probability of any abatement of the feverish 
excitement attending it. 



KLONDIKE, "BRIDE OF THE "BOLD. 

Steep mountain, deep ravine 
Erst hailed me, the wild Ice-Queen; 
The avalanche was my minister ; 
(My courtiers grim and sinister 
The wolves and the gri^:(lies were ; 
tAnd the winds howled chorus, keen 
^s their fangs, through my fierce demesne, 

tAges here have I lain 

In my yellow enchantment, fain 
Of pursuers and wooers hold, 
In a shape divine, controlled 
By the sacred thirst for gold. 

Whose worship would make my reign 

tMore wide in the human hrain, 

tAnd their gain shall he thousand fold — 

[My Lovers who grow not cold, 
'But embrace me with might and main. 
Our nuptials may start in pain, 
^ut the strain shall not he vain; 

For Klondike, Goddess of Gold^ 

Is a loyal "Bride of the "Bold. 

—Henry /Austin. 



GOLD AND ITS ^/ICTIMS. 

"Judges and Senates have been bought b^or gold." 

— Pope. 

Gold, says the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, is a pre- 
cious metal remarkable on account of its unique and beauti- 
ful yellow color, luster, high specific gravity, and freedom 
from liability to rust or tarnish when exposed to the air. 
The specific gravity of pure gold is 19.3. Gold stands first 
among the metals in point of ductility and malleability. Its 
tenacity is almost equal to that of silver, two-thirds that of 
copper, and twelve times that of lead. It may be beaten 
into leaves thin enough to transmit a greenish light. It 
stands next to silver and copper as a conductor of heat and 
electricity; its melting point is about 1,100°C. (or 2,000<^F.) ; 
it is not attacked by any of the ordinary acids, but combines 
readily with chlorine ; and it is dissolved by a mixture of 
hydrochloric and nitric acids. The crystalline form of gold 
is isometric, but crystallized gold is a rarity, and it is ex- 
tremely uncommon to finds crystals with smooth faces and 
sharp edges. Neither have any very large crystals ever been 
noticed, nor one so much as an inch in diameter. Arbor- 
escent masses, showing irregularly developed crystalline 
planes, are occasionally found, and such forms are some- 
times aggregated into large masses ; but much the larger 
part of the native gold found is entirely destitute of any 
appearance of crystallization, being usually in the form of 
small scales, which are often so minute as to be almost invi- 
sible to the naked eye. Larger rounded masses, called 
nuggets, are occasionally met with, and these are sometimes 
many pounds in weight. A specimen from the Ural pre- 
served in the collection of the mining school at St. Peters- 
burg weighs nearly a hundred pounds. The largest nugget 
of which there is any record was found in Australia, and 
was called the "Welcome." It weighed over 184 pounds, 
contained by assay 99.2 per cent, of gold, and netted a 
value when melted of $46,625. Gold is a widely dissem- 



GQLD AND ITS VICTIMS. 185 

inated metal, but does not occur anywhere in large quanti- 
ties, as compared with the ordinary useful metals. There is 
no proper ore of gold, this metal being never, so far as is 
known, mineralized by sulphur or oxygen. Although gold 
is disseminated in line and usually invisible particles througli 
various ores of the other metals, and in many cases in quan- 
tity great enough to be separated with profit, most of the 
gold of the world is obtained either in the form of native 
gold, from washing the superficial detritus (sand and gravel), 
or by separating it from quartz, with v,diich mineral it is 
almost invariably associated when occurring in veins or 
segregations in the solid rocks. Native gold is, however, in 
fact, an alloy of gold wdth silver, and traces of copper and 
iron are often associated with it. No native gold entirely- 
free from silver has ever been found. The amount of tlie 
latter metal present in gold varies greatly in different 
regions. The gold of California usually contains from ten 
to twelve per cent, of silver : that of Australia rather less 
than half as much. The native gold of Mount Morgan, 
Queensland, approaches more nearly to chemical purity than 
any hitherto discovered, since it contains 99 . 7 per cent, of 
gold, and only a minute trace of silver. Pure gold is very 
rarely used in the arts. All gold coin and gold ornaments in 
use are alloys of gold with copper, or with copper and silver. 
The alloy is used, in the case of coin, because pure gold is too 
soft to bear rough usage ; and for the same reason, as well 
as to diminish the cost, in the case of gold used for personal 
ornaments. The coin of England is composed of eleven 
parts of gold and one of copper ; that of France and the 
United States of nine of gold and one of copper. The so- 
called gold used for jewels and watch-cases varies from 
eight or nine to eighteen carats fine. The alloys of gold 
with copper and silver are given various shades of color by 
treatment with chemicals, according to fashion or fancy. 
Gold has been in use for ornamental purposes from the 
earliest times. The world's output of gold during recent 
years, according to the reports of the United States Mint, 
has been as follows : 1893, $118,840,000; 1891, $130,650,000; 
1892, $146,297,000; 1893, $157,228,000; 1894, $181,510,100. 
In the United States the output has increased from over 
$83,000,000 in 1890 to over $39,000,000 in 1894. The total 



186 GOLD AND ITS VICTIMS. 

amount of gold coin and bullion in the United States at the 
end of 1894 is estimated at about $600,000,000. 

Waves of cupidity travel in cycles and have 
from earliest times blighted communities and 
sometimes continents. Of these recurring 
periods, in which all that is basest in man's 
nature has asserted itself, the most notable are 
those that afflicted both England and the Con- 
tinent from 1717 to 1720, when the great crash 
came. 

John Law, known as the Projector, was 
born in Edinburgh, in 1671. He killed a rival 
claimant to a woman's favors in a duel, was 
tried at the Old Bailey for murder, condemned 
to death, and escaped to the Continent. 

Law originated the ''Mississippi System," as 
it was called, at Paris, and issued shares at 
500 livres each. Over this scheme the entire 
Continent seemed to go insane, and shares soon 
rose to 10,000 livres each, or more than sixty 
times their nominal value. A rage for posses- 
sion of the shares pervaded all ranks of society. 
Clergy and laity, peers and plebians, princes 
and peasants, statesmen and magistrates, 
ladies, all in short, who could procure money, 
turned stock-jobbers, outbidding each other 
with great avidity. All classes of men deserted 
their work and devoted themselves exclusively 
to the stock market of the Mississippi System. 
The people were delirious with cupidity. 

The unexampled rise in the prices of Law's 



GOLD AND ITS VICTIMS. 18T 

worthless securities enabled obscure and hum- 
ble individuals to suddenly acquire princely 
fortunes. A footman having become rich in a 
day provided himself with a carriage. When 
it drew up at his door, instead of entering it, 
he climbed up behind from force of habit. 
Law's coachman made a great fortune and re- 
tired. Cooks and maid-servants appeared at 
the opera ablaze with jewels. The son of a 
baker at Toulouse, taking a fancy to have a 
service of plate, bought the entire stock of a 
goldsmith for 400,000 livres and sent them to 
his wife to deck the supper table. All precon- 
ceived ideas of delicacy or decency were sup- 
planted in the public mind by cupidity and 
avarice. When the scheme collapsed in 1720, 
Law was stripped of his fortune and finally 
died in Venice in a condition of destitution. 

At the time when Law's Mississippi System 
was on the verge of collapse, the people of 
England were in a frenzy of avarice over a 
similar scheme to get rich quickly, which after- 
wards came to be known as the South Sea Bub- 
ble. The scheme was based on the same finan- 
cial reasoning as Law's, having been originated 
by Harley, earl of Oxford. Frantic indecency 
marked the mad struggle for shares. The 
worthless stock rose to the fabulous sum of 
£1,000 a share and fortunes were made in an 
hour. When the bubble was pricked it was 
found that cupidity had besmirched a nation. 



188 aOLD AND ITS VICTIMS. 

Parliament had been corrupted and women of 
high degree were parties to the crime. The 
widespread ruin which followed was so great 
that the nation had to divide the loss v/ith the 
deluded subjects. Contemporaneously v/ith this 
great gambling scheme, England was afiiicted 
Y/ith innumerable smaller "bubbles," equally 
mischievous and based on the projection of the 
most frivolous and absurd ends. So v/ide- 
spread was the demoralization that this class 
of gambling had to be suppressed by act of 
Parliament. 

During the past four or more years the de- 
pressing financial conditions of the times have 
had their effect not alone on the poor, who are 
always with us, nor on the usually thrifty 
wage-earners and those busy breadwinners, 
who may be denominated the middle classes, 
but on the capitalist, the retired gentlemen, 
and those people possessing vested interests, 
and what in normal times would be considered 
a competence. Proportionately, the people 
living on their means have suffered more per- 
haps than any other class, especially those 
holding mixed securities, which have so shrunk 
and depreciated as to have caused acute alarm 
in many a household tla'oughout the land. 
The man whose property mainly consists in 
mortgages has suffered from the continual de- 
faulting of interest payers, the farmers, who, 
in turn, have been unable to scratch out of 



GOLD AND ITS VICTIMS. 189 

their farms a decent living, because of over- 
production and the consequent low prices of 
nearly all farm produce. 

So that everyone has been in extremis^ and 
for the first time in years, or perhaps in their 
lives, many men reputed to be wealthy have 
had to go to '^banking." Men who were 
really worth $100, 000 half a dozen years ago are 
to-day wondering why with good management 
and the exercise of economy and good judg- 
ment in making investments, as a rule, their 
estates have dwindled at least one-half. Such 
men, forced to resort to expedients and make- 
shifts to save their credit and keep up appear- 
ances are often the first to commit some act of 
monetary folly which pushes them to the wall 
and ruins them after a life-time on ^^Easy 
street." 

The present Klondike fever has spread like 
a contagion everywhere, and in its wake there 
bid fair to follow another disease — mad specu- 
lation. All kinds of catch-penny schemes are 
being devised to trap the unwary man who 
still has a little money to invest ; all kinds of 
bogus companies are springing into existence 
willing to accept subscriptions for stock from 
twenty-five cents up to one hundred dollars or 
more. After a few weeks the unwise patrons 
of these swindling concerns will be unable to 
find out their business addresses; they will have 
vanished into thin air with all the specious 



190 GOLD AND ITS VICTIMS. 

promises of gain which tempted the distracted 
investor. 

Hundred of advertisements of meretricious 
corporations and green- goods projects have 
appeared in the newspapers, all relating to the 
gold craze in Alaska and the Klondike, and 
few of them are worth the instant's considera- 
tion of any rational man. They all bear the 
ear-marks of insincerity. If the implied warn- 
ing here expressed should deter suffering cap- 
italists or impressionable workingmen from 
rash investment in these chimericaj enter- 
prises, the purpose of these remarks will be 
justified. 

The better plan for investors is to wait pa- 
tiently until the summer of 'ISOS for the testi- 
mony of the thousands who have gone to Alaska 
this year. If the reports confirm all the as- 
sertions made of the amazing riches locked 
up in the basin and mountains of the Yukon 
country, there will be plenty of time for legiti- 
mate investment on the part of the public. 



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